This year’s edition of MYCONTENT, which will be held in Dubai on October 29-30, will be especially focused on the markets in the CEE region offering local players new opportunities to showcase their content and services. Project Manager Vlad Borovina shared more details about the upcoming event and conference with Stanislav Kimchev.

Mr. Borovina, MYCONTENT will see its 8th edition in October this year. Tell us more about the event – how did your company decide to organize it and how it evolved throughout the years?

INDEX Conferences & Exhibitions is a leading United Arab Emirates based company specialized in events management. Over the years, INDEX Conferences & Exhibitions has organized a range of events in various fields that included Medical, Economic, Industrial, Academic, Trade, Investment, Business and many others.

MYCONTENT was launched in 2010 at the initiative of our Vice Chairman & Group CEO, Eng. Anas Al Madani, who knew Dubai is rapidly expending and can be a strategic destination, in terms of logistics, accessibility and safety for more than 20% of the world’s population and its TV consumers.

Throughout the 7 editions, MYCONTENT experienced both ups and downs, like the entire industry, but overall it has seen an increase not only in the number, but also in the quality of visitors, as well as the actual outcome of the business done during the two days of the event.

What are your expectations for this year's 8th edition? How many attendees from how many countries are expected to visit the Dubai International Convention & Exhibition Center in October?

We are always trying to exceed previous years in terms of numbers, whether it’s buyers, visitors, sellers or square meters, but also to deliver, as per our slogan at INDEX, to provide “A Memorable Experience”.

In this 8th edition we are expecting to welcome over 1300 participants from 50+ countries, grouped into 4 different categories: buyers, sellers, producers, visitors.

What type of participants does MYCONTENT attract?

Like any other similar show, we welcome all content related executives coming from TV channels, pay-TV operators, distributors, dubbing companies, mobile operators, airlines, OTT, inflight, mass media, etc.

As a trademark for this year, we will focus specially on Central & Eastern European companies and have extended our Hosted Buyer Program to the 20 countries from the region.

This program allows selected companies to be entitled to free accommodation for the duration of MYCONTENT, access to our pre-organized meeting platform and free lunch vouchers for both days of the event.

4. MYCONTENT also has an extensive presentation and discussion part. What will be the hot topics for this year's edition?

Indeed, running parallel to the actual trade show, we will have a conference program with trending topics and top-notch speakers. Here is the list of selected discussions:
• How Social Media is re-inventing the Television Industry
• Content Creation in a Digital World;
• Subtitles or Dubbing For Young Viewers?;
• Virtual Reality and the challenges for classic audiences;
• IN-FLIGHT Entertainment – what do airlines want?;
• Modern vs. Traditional Animation;
• Pay-TV vs. OTT;
• Comedy In The UAE;
With speakers representing strong brands such as Etihad Airways, Youtube, Yahlive or Cartoon Network, the conference program will be moderated by industry journalists with advanced knowledge of the discussions.
It will all end with a special surprise-guest.

The regional market has experienced significant growth in the past few years and demand for content in the region is very high. Do you expect for this growth to continue?

TV consumers in the region have high expectations when it comes to high quality content. For local and regional broadcasters, such as Dubai TV, Abu Dhabi TV, MBC, Al Hayat, CBC and others, it all reaches a peak during the holy month of Ramadan when they unveil new shows or old time classics. There is a strong competition to capture the eye of the viewer which can only bring diversity for everyone.

But there is a lot of attention on business development and content creation in the UAE. Twofour54 Abu Dhabi, one of MYCONTENT’s Official Supporters not only brings the right infrastructure and production facilities, but they also come with a tax free (or close to that) system for the producers. There is more to TV content than just having an interesting idea which you want to put on camera, so Twofour54 created tailored made training sessions and programs to help existing or up-coming producers make a sustainable business.