The conference – Media Innovation Symposium: Responses to the Pandemic – will feature a series of panels with media experts who will address topics that include the digitisation of sport, journalism in the digital age, and creative writing during the pandemic.
The symposium will take place virtually on January 28 from 11.30am.
“This past year, the world had to move quickly to respond to restrictions imposed by the pandemic,” said Dama Lab manager Eric Espig. “Through this symposium, we are bringing together media and technology leaders who will unpack the reality of the changes in the media and communication world and shed light on what we can expect in the near future.”
A panel on Covid-19, sport, and media, which will be moderated by Craig LaMay, a Northwestern professor who is also an expert in sports media, will address the slowdown in the growth of global sport, the difference between US and European models of sport, the rise of hybrid sport, digitisation of sport, and the demand for online streaming of sports by media giants Amazon and Facebook, among other topics.
Joining LaMay will be Mike Rowbottom of InsideTheGames, and Gerard Akindes, from the Josoor Institute.
To address the challenges and opportunities for business owners in the socially-distant, digital age, Northwestern Qatar professor Venus S Jin will moderate a second panel with Heba Q Almasri, director of the start-up accelerator Qatar SportsTech, and Ramy Abdulzaher, co-founder and chief operating officer of Bonocle Incorporated.
The panel will provide a local perspective on how start-ups had to reinvent their business models to survive the restrictions imposed by the pandemic by turning towards e-solutions and finding innovative ways to meet the market’s needs.
For creative writers, the pandemic has been a different experience due to the flexibility of their profession.
Authors Hala Alyan and Khaled Khalifa will join a panel moderated by NU-Q professor Aaron LaDuke to discuss the opportunities and challenges writers face from a creative perspective and how they were affected from a business and publishing standpoint.
