Bigwigs to boost Arabic publishing industries
ABU DHABI: Organised by the Abu Dhabi Arabic Language Centre (ALC), the third edition of the International Congress of Arabic Publishing and Creative Industries (PCI) is preparing to host prominent figures in publishing, translation, digital content production, and entrepreneurship from around the world on Sunday, 28 April 2024, at Manarat Al Saadiyat in the UAE capital Abu Dhabi.
The event aims to explore the latest trends shaping the publishing and creative industries, as well as new opportunities for growth and collaboration in this field.
The Congress is the first of its kind in the Arab world and seeks to facilitate dialogue among thought leaders, publishers, content creators, and entrepreneurs across diverse creative disciplines. This year’s edition will highlight transformations reshaping the publishing and education industries, discussing the role and impact of emerging technologies and new business models. Moreover, the event aims to create promising partnerships to support the globalisation of Arabic content through dialogues, discussion panels, workshops, career tracks, and professional meetings bringing together key players from various cultural and creative industries from over 50 countries.
The Congress kicks off with a Keynote Discussion titled ‘Foresight of Growth: Cultural and Creative Industries as a Driver for Economy’, featuring Mohamed Khalifa Al Mubarak, Chairman of the Department of Culture and Tourism - Abu Dhabi (DCT Abu Dhabi), and Mohamed El-erian, internationally acclaimed economist and president of Queens’ College at the University of Cambridge. The session is moderated by Caroline Faraj, Vice President and Editor-in-chief of CNN Arabic.
Moreover, this year’s Congress discusses ‘The Dynamic Relationship Between Literature and Film Adaptation’ under its conscious conversations series, hosting Egyptian actor and director Karim Abdel Aziz; author and screenwriter Ahmed Mourad; and film director mar wan ham ed, in a session moderated by Eisa Al Marzooqi, news presenter and multimedia journalist at Sky News Arabia. Panellists will discuss cinema secrets, mutual influences of literature and cinema, ways to present cinematic works and their purposes, among other topics.
In a panel discussion titled ‘Evolving Consumer Tastes and Consumption in the Era of Multi-platform Content Creation’, the Congress discusses radical shifts in content consumption patterns with the proliferation of digital platforms and consumers’ growing preference for these channels. The session also highlights patterns and specific characteristics of the content presented to consumers, underlining the strategies that content production companies use to balance meeting consumer aspirations and achieving the goals of various platforms. Featuring Mazen Hayek, consultant, media advisor, former Spokesman and Group Director of MBC Group; Maaz Sheikh, Co-founder and CEO of STARZPLAY; and Ashley Rite, Vice President of Marketing and Growth at OSN, the session is moderated by Zeina Soufan, senior business news anchor at Asharq Business with Bloomberg.