Digital Media Hub Awards Nominees Announced!

Roll out the red carpet for the Digital Media Hub Awards 2012! HUBFORUM, partnered with FrenchWeb.fr, will hold an awards ceremony in Espace Cardin on October 11-12 to honor the the most influential digital personality of the year, start-up of the year, and digital marketing and communications book of the year. Expecting 600 guests in attendance, the opportunities to showcase fresh talent and seasoned media moguls will be plenty. The 8 stunning nominees for digital technology personality of the year are:
Carlo d’Asaro Biondo, VP of SEEMEA Google is Europe’s merchant of culture and always seeking new ways to promote creative business models and online cultural industries. At the Online Media Expo in 2010, Biondo opened with: “Globalization is touching our lives…[whether] we are French, or Italian like me, or American…if you look at search engines, it is a fantastic [tool] to protect and express our culture.”
Jacques-Antoine Granjon, founder of Vente-privée.fr, is a true visionary in online retail shopping. With over 1 billion euros of revenue, Granjon is still not satisfied desiring to reach new heights in what he calls a ‘B2B’ business. Forbes magazine gushes on his success hailing him the “[inventor] of flash sales on the Internet.”
Gilles Babinet, serial entrepreneur and co-founder of Captain Dash, an app that synchronizes business data and communication for mobile devices, may win him double as his start-up was also among the nominees for a Hub Award.
Eric Boustouller, recently named Area Vice President for Microsoft Western Europe, sees the cup half full, promoting a digital media philosophy that espouses a life more fulfilled by being an informed and active participant in internet and digital systems. Boustouller writes in his latest book, “Atout numérique : pour en finir avec une mélancolie française”, that this generation of media consumers attend more social events, make connections and access information at faster unprecedented rates. If only swimming times at this year’s Olympics followed this trend!
Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet, who recently announced her candidacy for the presidency of the UMP party, is currently deputy of the 4th electoral constituency of Essonne. Following her appointment as Secretary of State over the digital economy in 2009, her role in stimulus plans for web startups and e-commerce was crucial. Under Sarkozy’s presidency, the Digital France 2012 plan was launched to restructure internet development and governance. She also successfully passed through a stimulus package of 50 million euros for digital commerce in France.
Fleur Pellerin currently holds the position of Junior Minister for Small and Medium Enterprises, Innovation, and the Digital Economy. Technology experts and economists will scrutinize her role and involvement in the CIR, the the research tax credit, and future policies on digital intellectual property. She is a heavyweight when it comes to digital technology policy and we can only expect President François Hollande to follow her lead.
Stéphane Richard, CEO of France Telecom, faces two battlefronts, the economic downturn and Free Mobile. While losing a few million customers in the first quarter of 2012, his strategy focused on reducing administrative, hardware and network costs. Also, to halt future lay-offs and potential job eliminations, he recently announced potential plans to merge with Deutsch Telekom. During a Euro crisis, this doesn’t sound like too bad an idea!
Marc Simoncini is founder of the leading European dating website Meetic, and creator of Jaina Capital, an angel investment firm. He set aside 100 Million Euros destined for startup ventures. He has an unshaken faith in investing in entrepreneurs because his belief is that these are the same entrepreneurs who after finding success find it better to give than to receive. His desire is to work alongside their personal projects to establish a true link between the investor and entrepreneur.
The ultimate winner of this award will be determined by public voting – you can vote now via Hub Award’s Facebook page!
As you can expect the schedule will be packed with workshops, strategic marketing talks, networking sessions, and panel discussions on the newest social network features and direction of global media business. Get your ticket now!