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Producing the First-Ever e-G8 Forum: From Concepts to Logistics, MSLGROUP Companies and Agencies Led Effort to Produce Historic Event on the Internet to Inform the G8 Heads of State

26 May 2011, Paris: As the world's first e-G8 Forum drew to a close, MSLGROUP, the PR, speciality communications and engagement network of Publicis Groupe, shed light on what it took to produce the event with just an eight-week lead time.

From media relations to construction of a customized venue, MSLGROUP companies and agencies-in particular Geneva-based Publicis Live-directed all aspects of event production and management. Publicis Consultants directed media relations while Publicis Consultants Net Intelligenz handled monitoring of online discussions and social media activity, including the e-G8 Forum Twitter feed, prior to and during the event. Sister agency Marcel designed and built the www.eg8forum.com website, which carried live streaming of the plenary sessions, and Publicis Care helped to manage logistics onsite.

The e-G8 Forum took place in Paris on May 24 and 25, on the eve of the G8 Heads of State and Government Summit, scheduled to take place today and tomorrow in Deauville (Normandy).

As plans for the forum got underway earlier this spring, the President of the French Republic, Mr. Nicolas Sarkozy, asked that the e-G8 Forum be an initiative led and financed by the private sector under the leadership of Maurice Lévy, Chairman and CEO of Publicis Groupe. The French government supported the event by providing two of the country's most exceptional landmarks as venues: The forum took place in the Tuileries Garden while a gala dinner for 350 people took place at the Louvre Museum.

The main ideas from the forum, captured and recorded at the end of each session, will be shared with the Heads of State, who are formally discussing the Internet's effect on the economy and society for the first time at this year's G8 summit. Later today, Mr. Lévy and a few executives representing global internet companies will meet with the Heads of State.

"It has been an honor to work with M. Lévy to produce the e-G8 Forum," Mr. Fleurot said. "The Internet is a major contributor to jobs, economic growth and democracy. From CEOs of some of the largest technology companies to non-profits and activists, I cannot imagine a better group of people to tackle some of the most important issues related to the Internet and the future of our society. It was a pleasure to welcome and exchange ideas with all of them."

PublicisLive Executive Chairman John Rossant said: "The e-G8 Forum has been an enormously complex undertaking. We gathered hundreds of global business leaders and key digital players from around the world, and created a compelling program, with just an eight-week lead time. I am proud of the PublicisLive teams and all the people from MSLGROUP companies and agencies who worked together to create this great event."

Co-Chairs and Corporate Partners Helped Shape Forum Content

Mr. Lévy was joined by several other co-chairs who helped shape the forum content: John Donahoe, president and CEO, eBay Inc.; Thomas H. Glocer, CEO, Thomson Reuters; Jean-Bernard Lévy, CEO, Vivendi; Stéphane Richard, CEO, France Telecom - Orange; Eric Schmidt, executive chairman, Google, Inc.;  and Ben Verwaayen, CEO, Alcatel-Lucent; and  Sun Yafang, chairwoman, Huawei.

Executives who helped the cochairs in creating the themes to be shared with the Heads of State were: Sunil Bharti Mittal, chairman and managing director, Bharti Airtel Ltd.; Rupert Murdoch, chairman and CEO, News Corporation; Prof. Klaus Schwab, founder and executive chairman, World Economic Forum; Arthur Sulzberger, chairman, The New York Times Company; Jimmy Wales, founder, Wikipedia; and Mark Zuckerberg, founder and CEO, Facebook.

The corporate partners-in addition to aforementioned Alcatel-Lucent, eBay, Huawei, Orange, and Vivendi-were: Accel Partners, represented by Partner Joe Schoendorf; Capgemini Group, represented by Vice Chairman Paul Hermelin; Eutelsat, represented by CEO Michel de Rosen; Free's Corporate Foundation, represented by Xavier Niel, founder of the ILIAD Group, Free's parent company, and Iliad's VP and director of strategy; Hewlett-Packard Company, represented by Yves de Talhouët, SVP enterprise business and managing director, EMEA; and Microsoft, represented by Craig Mundie, chief research and strategy officer. Intel and Yahoo! also supported the event.

 

MSLGROUP CEO Olivier Fleurot: Panel on Electronic Liberty

For his part, MSLGROUP CEO Olivier Fleurot moderated a panel titled: Electronic Liberty - New Tools for Freedom. Panelists were: Hassan Fattah, editor-in-chief, The National (Abu Dhabi); Jamal Khashoggi, general manager, Alwaleed 24 news Channel; Jean-François Julliard, secretary-general, Reporters Without Borders; Shervin Pishevar, social web entrepreneur and angel investor; Susan Pointer, director, public policy and government relations, EMEA, Google; Alec Ross, special advisor to U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton; Tony Wang, general manager Europe, Twitter; and Nadine Wahab, Egyptian blogger and activist.

Mr. Fleurot's panel concluded that the major idea to be sent to the Heads of State was the need for a strong global commitment to internet freedom.

The e-G8 Forum in Numbers (courtesy of PublicisLive, Publicis Consultants Net Intelligenz and Marcel)

 

People

• 1,570 participants from 30 countries
• 115 speakers
• 300 journalists from 15 countries
• 572 staff members, contractors and part-time workers
• 188 security personnel

Virtual Participation

• 67,000 visits to www.eg8forum.com; 184,300 pageviews
• 38,584 people followed the live diffusion of plenary sessions via the official website (www.eg8forum.com ) and Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/EG8Forum) (on May 24 only)
• 18,244 Facebook fans (http://www.facebook.com/EG8Forum)
• 38,000 tweets using the #eg8 hashtag (source: Hootsuite)

Production and IT

• 9,000 square meters including 5,000 square meters of tents
• 5 kilometers of cables including 700 meters of internet cables
• 2 internet fiber lines of 100 megabytes each (high-speed internet access)
• 24 wifi relays and 3G station to ensure wireless/mobile internet access
• 4 kilometers of ethernet cabling and 80 switches connecting 78 computers

For more information, please visit www.eg8forum.com, Facebook @ http://www.facebook.com/EG8Forum, YouTube @ www.youtube.com/user/eg8 and Twitter @eg8forum or @ #eg8.