The Digital Lab Africa competition is an initiative to encourage African talent for the new digital era, Balancing Act’s Sylvain Beletre interviewed the initiator of the Digital Lab Africa (DLA), Frederic Chambon, Audiovisual Attache of the French Institute of South Africa under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of France.
The Digital Lab Africa was launched at the second edition DISCOP in Abidjan. In his launch speech, Frederic Chambon, regional head of Media, Film and Music at the French Embassy in South Africa, and producer of DLA said “DLA is a platform dedicated to the African digital content of tomorrow. In the age of digital convergence, TV, film, music and video game content in Africa is increasingly consumed on internet and mobile phones, like everywhere else.’ Also present at the launch was Maurice Bandama, minister of Culture and Francophonie of Cote d’Ivoire.
The project focused around multimedia innovation and is calling for entries.
The jury will select four DLA African talents who will win 3000 euros each, but they also receive other support. “DLA is mainly an office incubator, exchange platform and sharing of expertise is its real value” said Chambon. In 2017, the selected will receive all an expenses paid trip to France – in Paris and in major provincial cities – for a few weeks visiting French tech companies. According to DLA, the scheme will also include a search for investors. DLA will help African talent access the resources of European countries.
DLA is a talent incubator because “the primary objective is to offer a multimedia production platforms designed for the African continent by allowing projects to emerge and become sustainable, with the support of French partners. The purpose of this action is to engage in dialogue and to give French know-how to African talent” said Frederic Chambon.
The competition to select winners has four categories:
Web design / transmedia / television and audiovisual, digital music, video games and virtual reality.
The deadline for submission of applications is 31 August 2016.
“At the next Discop Africa Johannesburg, which will be held from 2 to 4 November 2016, selected candidates will participate in a pitch competition. The second day, we will launch four round tables corresponding to the four categories with three participants per session: two sessions in the morning, two in the afternoon. We are currently looking for good players in these four segments Then we will announce the four winners,” said Chambon.
The Digital Lab Africa is an initiative of the Embassy of France and the French Institute of South Africa, which forms part of their support for cultural and creative industries. The project partners are numerous. Among them, there are Lagardere Studio (one of the production leaders in Europe and Africa), Arte (the largest French-German cultural TV channel), Trace and Basic Lead (organisers of Discop markets).
Upload an application before 31 August 2016 at the Digital Lab Africa website.
Source: Balancing Act
