Les French à Doubai

This post is advance notice of reduced posting to be expected mid-week, occasioned by another two overnights up the road in Dubai.

The Dusit Hotel pictured is the venue for a two-day event organized by TV France International who each year invite program acquisition executives from all over the Middle East and North Africa to come to Dubai and meet with vendors and distributors of television programming 'made in France'.

Those of my readers who know that I am in the midst of an effort to migrate as fast as possible from the lumbering 'old media' environment to the agile 'do-it-yourself' world of vlogging and podcasting may be surprised at my enthusiasm for such an event.

It may be all about main-stream media, but nevertheless TVFI are doing it right. For a start it's not a bad idea to meet face-to-face with the people you're dealing with, as well as reveling in the boundless freedom of cyberspace.

Then there's the fact that the French make fine 'old media' television content and in future there'll be amazing French do-it-yourself media makers, too. There are, for example, French talk shows which are a stunning visual experience, not just radio with pictures. The uniquely French long-form drama format with six episodes of feature-film length is a storytelling banquet, both as high rating appointment viewing and as DVD boxed set for 'long tailing' later.

Oh yes, the fact that I can be blatantly and unapologetically francophile for 48 hours in rather splendid surroundings is to be looked forward too!

The twenty French distributors coming to the Sandlands where we have our two hundred channels beaming up from Dubai Media City will also almost double the number of people here who actually get what television is about, even if it's only for two days.