Russia - media definitely interesting

My first visit to Russia has been an eye-opener. Despite the bitterly cold weather, my welcome by everyone involved in the Digital TV Russia conference, and people from the media here, has been overwhelmingly warm.

It seems to me that the Russian media industry has been sold some slightly dubious promises by firms in the West, who are keen to make cash in this new-ish media market, while not providing all the facts. I'm reporting to AIB members about this and providing some analysis in the next edition of our member-only market intelligence briefing.

Meanwhile, it's been a great few days here with lots to see and do, and much to learn about the media industry from insiders. Great contacts made on behalf of AIB members and I'm looking forward to my next visit - perhaps when the weather's warmer.

Moscow calling

I'm preparing to travel to Moscow - now on BMI rather than BA (and working out how to cope with a far lower baggage allowance!). I will be taking part in the Digital TV Russia symposium which AIB has agreed to support, as well as meeting a range of broadcasters and others involved in the media scene in Russia.

It's definitely a trip I'm looking forward to as I have not been to Moscow before. I will have to find some time to do the tourist stuff of Red Square and have a go on the metro.

You will be able to read my paper on the AIB website from 1200GMT on Monday 22 March.

I'm also going to be trying out new presentation software that I saw in action earlier this week at the Social TV Forum. Paul Bristow, VP Strategy at Swiss-based ADB, makes use of Prezi and I was very impressed. I'm experimenting with it at the moment and will be using it for real for the first time in Moscow on Monday. Wish me luck!

BA - just what do the initials stand for?

I'm a bit disgruntled. Having learnt that the flight I am due to travel to Moscow is one of the ones that is apparently not surviving the British Airways cabin crew strike, I rang BA to try and get on to an earlier flight that is still going.

I waited, listening to the same 20 bars of music and same announcements saying how wonderful BA is, for more than two and a half hours. And then...I was cut off. I should have known that would happen.

Now it's impossible to get through - the message "we're experiencing extremely high call volumes" is the only thing you can get at the moment.

At this rate, getting to Moscow could prove challenging. Is it time to switch allegiance from OneWorld to Star Alliance of SkyTeam?

Chairing and presenting, meeting and discussing

It's been a busy few weeks and it looks as though the coming weeks will be equally busy.

From visits to Barcelona and New Delhi comes lots of follow-up work to do and I'm slowly managing to catch up with everything. And now I'm heading off to chair the Social TV Forum in London on 16 March and then to Moscow - BA strikes permitting - to speak about digital TV around the world at the 3rd Digital TV Russia summit.

On top of all that, my colleagues and I are working hard on the preparations for this year's AIBs - the international media excellence awards - that we are launching in mid-April. This is the sixth year of the AIBs and I have a feeling that this year will be the best yet. We're making sure that more programme makers know about the awards than ever before and are looking forward to a bumper crop of entries.

And then there's all the research work we're doing for our market intelligence briefings that AIB members around the world receive.

It's probably a good thing that the sun is shining...it makes for a more inspirational working environment which leads to getting more things done!

MWC - mobile first, content...well, not quite sure

The annual mobile-fest, Mobile World Congress, is underway in Barcelona where, on the third day, the sun has finally come out lifting the spirits of the several tens of thousands of visitors.

There´s a clear message emanating from here: mobile is the future. And that means the device in everyone´s pocket is definitely going to become even more important. However, there´s increasing pressure on mobile bandwidth as more smartphones come into use globally - here in Barcelona trying to browse the web or download a new app on my BlackBerry can take a very long time. I´m not convinced that users will stand for the sort of delays I have been experiencing.

So, while Google´s Eric Schmidt makes a definitive statement that for Google, it´s "mobile first", there is still an immense amount of work to be done to bring the mobile web to users globally. And as for quality content, there are ever more challenges for broadcasters. A different app is needed for every phone brand at the moment and while the intention to have a single app platform across all makes is a great idea, I wonder when it will become reality.

That means that few content owners are actively promoting their offers to mobile operators here, despite the fact that almost every mobile operator in the world attends this event. AIB member Deutsche Welle is here, on the NRW stand in hall 1, while France 24 is on Mobiclip in hall 2. Other content providers include Rotana, up in hall 7 (which is app world, so I´m not quite sure why they are there), and the BBC has a team of several/lots of people walking the stands...I´ve counted four or five people already from the BBC.

AIB will be analysing what we are learning here for our members in the next couple of weeks.

AIB up in lights at MWC - well, on flags, actually!

AIB gets great mentions at the entrance to hall 2 at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona this year.

Our award to France 24 in the 2009 AIBs is celebrated on around 48 banners lining the walkway into hall 2, encouraging visitors to go to the Mobiclip stand.

Thanks, Mobiclip - doubtless you will be supporting the 2010 AIBs...

Is digital the way forward for trade magazines?

AIB has just published the first edition of 2010 of its international media magazine, The Channel.

We're committed to printing copies of the magazine for our subscribers around the world, as well as for distribution at media events we go to around the world.

However, we've been experimenting with digital, page-turning editions and have now employed a new set of software to enable us to publish all our publications online and to offer our 25,000-plus contacts around the world a copy of The Channel - and other AIB publications - on their PCs.

I don't believe that digital initiatives like this mean the end of printing presses or physical copies. Personally, I do prefer leafing through a printed magazine at my leisure (or at my desk) than reading on the screen. Perhaps I'm old-fashioned - but my 14 year-old son also likes picking up and reading printed editions of magazines...

What the new digital publishing means for AIB and its members is that more people have access to our work, and that more people are therefore reading about the activities of our members. We included links to two of our members in the e-mail promoting the magazine as we thought the stories about them were worth highlighting. They've received hundreds of click-throughs, demonstrating that people want the ability to get more context around a story. This is something that cross-media production can really offer to everyone - whether they are in the trade or consumer sectors - and it's something we're encouraging our members to do as well.

Gone are the days of single platform content - and AIB is pleased to have moved into this new multiplatform arena.