James Hewes
The Di5ru.pt blog

Speaking to media consultant Christian Kallenberg on his We Like Mags podcast, FIPP President and CEO James Hewes highlighted the tremendous value of having the FIPP World Media Congress back in-person this year.

Below is some of what James told Christian, summarised. You can listen to the entire conversation with Christian on Spotify here

This episode of Christian’s We Like Mags podcast series is in English (James could not quite tap into his Swiss German from spending some of his childhood in Switzerland back in the day. We do not quite understand why, as it was not that long ago, hey, James?).

***Congress takes place from (7-9 June, Cascais, Portugal – see fippcongress.com for more). Want to save €600/ticket?*** 

***Claim your Early Bird discount now, before the offer expires***

  • Networking: Networking at Congress is a crucial need this year. The last in-person Congress was in Las Vegas in 2019, and the previous Congress in Europe in London in 2017. People are excited to see friends, colleagues old and new in person again. Of course, the speaker programme is important, and we have great speakers, but we are allowing much time for networking.
  • Meetings and business opportunities: The last few months, travelling and meeting publishers and other partners and preparing for Congress have been great. When meeting someone face-to-face, the level of engagement is ten times what you get online. The opportunities that flow from there are so much greater!
  • Speaker programme: We’ve got great speakers from around the world to tell us what they’re doing.
    • The opening keynote is Arnaud de Puyfontaine, CEO of Vivendi, one of the largest media groups in Europe and the world. He will tell us about their plans for the future. He will, hopefully, also speak about their recent investment in magazines. They bought a large magazine business in France, Prisma Media, an encouraging sign for those of us still working in the magazine media industry. (Also read: Meet with the BBC, Condé Nast, Dotdash Meredith, Hearst, The Economist, Vivendi, and more).
    • We have Ralph Büchi, former FIPP chairman and currently chairman of the Axel Springer Supervisory Board, talking about the future of journalism. (Read what he told Christian in an earlier podcast this year).
    • The Chief Business Officer of Dotdash Meredith, Alysia Borsa, will talk about that new business and the exciting things happening since the merger between Dotdash and Meredith. (Read FIPP’s interview with her here.)
    • I can run through all the names, but the details are on com. (Also see: Speaker number 60 now confirmed for Congress – see the complete list as it stands[note: We will add more speakers soon]).
    • We have tried to have the usual mix of different industry sectors, perspectives, and regions around the world included in the agenda. We’ve got, for example, Nkiru Balonwu speaking from Nigeria, we have Srini Balasubramanian from India, talking about fantastic things they have done in that market. We don’t take the name World Congress lightly. We do try to bring together global perspectives.
    • The final thing to mention is the launch of the annual Innovation Report. We will have Juan Señor and his colleague Iñes Bravo presenting the latest thoughts on innovations in our sector. It is one of our most valuable sessions, giving you the techniques and ideas to take and implement back home. 

On the podcast, Christian and James also talk about FIPP’s role in the global media industry and how membership needs and composition have and are changing.

They discuss established and developing media trends, the importance of sustainability and diversity, company culture and talent and what that looks like as we come out of Covid-19 lockdowns.

And, yes, as you would expect from a conversation with the CEO of an organisation born out of the magazine industry, printed magazines (it’s “becoming cool again”).

These are all topics speakers, sponsors and attendees will have the chance to discuss in-depth at fippcongress.com.

Reminder!

We are currently running a time-limited Early Bird registration offer on Congress tickets. Signing up before the offer ends will save you €600/ticket on final rates!

Claim your Early Bird discount now