NEW YORK, July 8, 2015 – Within the framework of the French Tech Hub New York initiative supported by Emmanuel Macron, French Minister of the Economy, and Axelle Lemaire, French Deputy Minister for Digital Affairs, , the Cultural Services of the French Embassy and Business France (international French agency for business development) launched on June 24, 2015 the French-American Digital Lab // Connecting Cultures, a creative lab and economic development program for content creators and startups of the arts and culture sector. The goal of this initiative is to enable new startups and cultural content creators to adapt their product to the French and American markets, while discovering new ecosystems and developing partnerships with local members of the culture industry.
Produced in partnership with major partner incubators (Numa, Gaîté Lyrique, Créatis, Paris&Co, and Made in New York Media Center) and supported by the City of Paris and Institut français, the program will take place twice per year, alternatively in New York and Paris. The French-American Digital Lab is also supported by Orange, as part of the company’s larger strategic plan to support open innovation. The first call for applications for the New York November 2015 session will open on July 8th, 2015.
The French-American Digital Lab offers a unique opportunity for members of the booming U.S. and French startup scenes. Said French Deputy Minister for Digital Affairs Axelle Lemaire, “The French-American Digital Lab will advance cutting-edge innovation by building lasting synergy between growing French and United States companies and adding the important nuance of cultural exchange. France and America have long nurtured a friendship around culture. This unique program incorporates that historic relationship into the startup sphere to build culturally fluent entrepreneurs and versatile products.”
“Paris is thrilled about the launch of this innovative creative laboratory, one that stems from an action-oriented approach that the City of Paris has taken to support the dynamic ecosystem of the creative and cultural industries. In collaboration with leading Parisian incubators, I am confident that cultural exchange between the two great hubs of New York and Paris will enable an expansion of mutual synergy, while the digital sphere continues to profoundly transform the domains of music, cinema, books, and design.”—Bruno Julliard, Deputy Mayor of the City of Paris in Charge of Culture
This intensive 10-day program includes networking sessions, meetings, seminars, and creative sessions. Participants will engage in themed workshops relating to intercultural topics and technological creation. These sessions will encourage participants to think deeply about the fundamental building blocks and value of their projects in order to view them from a new angle. In addition to the seminars, participants will benefit from individual mentorship with experts of the tech sphere and the opportunity to network with a large web of cultural institutions to enrich their knowledge: museums, operas, television channels, audiovisual production companies, publishing houses, brands, and music distributors.
Each installment of the French-American Digital Lab will focus on a specific theme (such as Sound & Image; Urbanism; Fashion & Design), with the first installment focusing on Narration (storytelling, transmedia, digital media, video games, journalism, and digital and paper publishing).
An individual review will take place six months after the program’s conclusion in order to determine the next steps for the international development of each participant.
The Cultural Services of the French Embassy provides a platform for exchange and innovation between French and American artists, intellectuals, educators, students, the tech community, and the general public. Based in New York City, Washington D.C., and eight other cities across the US, the Cultural Services develops the cultural economy by focusing on six principal fields of action: the arts, literature, cinema, the digital sphere, French language and higher education. www.frenchculture.org
Business France, the French international business development agency, accelerates the growth of French companies in North America, through personalized services allowing entrepreneurs to efficiently adjust and thrive in one of the most challenging markets in the world. Business France offers the following services: market opportunity analysis, go-to-market strategy, marketing and positioning strategies, organization of BtoB meetings with potential partners, lead generation, strategic introductions, coaching and mentoring. Business France’s New Technologies business development experts advised over 100 companies in their North American development in 2014 and secured more than 1000 meetings with 200 US companies. Success stories include Algolia, ATEME, Contract-Live, Criteo, docTrackr, eNovance, eXo Platform, Followanalytics, Gutenberg Technology, Qosmos, Ivalua, Restlet, PeopleDoc, Sightcall, Squid, Sublime Skinz, Vade Retro. In partnership with Bpifrance, Business France organizes ubi i/o, a yearly 10-week acceleration program helping the best French startups to successfully launch in America.
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Media Contact:
Emilie Cabouat-Peyrache+ 1 (212) 439-1417emilie.cabouat@diplomatie.gouv.frFrenchculture.org@franceinnyc – facebook.com/frenchculture