It was interesting to become familiar with this Anglo-Saxon culture of knowing how to present a project, of being efficient, of getting straight to the point on concepts and projects to be effective.

You are both winners of the ICC Immersion Émirats Arabes-Unis program. The Paris Opera also took part in the South Korea program, while Augmenta was also selected for Canada. Could you introduce your structure, its export project and the reasons why you chose to take part in ICC Immersion?

David-Alexandre Chanel: At Augmenta, we're building a technology that enables interactivity to be deployed and added in public cultural spaces, but also on stage. It is used to design immersive rooms, particularly where digital projections and audience interaction are involved. We took part in the ICC Immersion program twice, in Canada over two phases: a first of group immersion, a second of complementary individual immersion; and once in the United Arab Emirates. It was a very valuable accompaniment because, in the case of the United Arab Emirates, it enabled us to observe more precisely how the landscape was evolving and what it looked like today in terms of business development prospects. With the cohort, we were able to visit a lot of places, but also meet different players, which gave us a more accurate view of the current state of the creative industries and the needs in relation to our product in this region.

Éric Grebille : The Paris Opera is a public establishment, a 350-year-old institution that produces and presents opera and ballet. We have more than 400 curtain-raisers a year, with almost 900,000 spectators. To create all this magic, we also have a dance school, the oldest classical dance school in the world, and a whole world of know-how in our workshops. By taking part in the ICC Immersion program, we wanted to explore international markets to develop international cultural engineering initiatives and promote our know-how. Our aim was to export them, to bring our help, our outlook, our experience, to actors who would like to receive this training in French academic dance, but also our universe of expertise, developed within our teams and workshops.

The program offers immersion preparation in the form of online group workshops, how has this step been useful for your export strategy and for apprehending your meetings on site, in the United Arab Emirates?

David-Alexandre Chanel: The group workshops I was able to attend were very interesting. I've been able to travel to the United Arab Emirates on a regular basis, but as it's such a fast-moving area, it allowed us to keep up to date and understand what had changed, but also how things are going today. I was able to get some interesting information on how to do business at this time in the UAE and connect with players ahead of time.

Éric Grebille: This whole workshop phase allowed us to acclimatize to the country we were going to be sent to immerse ourselves in, to understand all the aspects and players. It also gave us a chance to meet, albeit virtually, all the members of the cohort who would be going to the United Arab Emirates, and to observe the different facets of French CCIs and what might interest our international contacts. It was only in retrospect, once we'd gone to the country, that I remembered all the workshops and all this information ended up taking on its full dimension and meaning.

What were the highlights of your on-site immersion? What type of structure visited or event organized made the biggest impression on you?

David-Alexandre Chanel: I'd like to pay tribute to the fantastic work of the team who accompanied us on our immersion in the United Arab Emirates. I also had a wonderful time with the whole cohort, as well as the organization team. We visited a wide range of actors and creative industries, from theaters and museums to more metaverse places and independent cinemas. The choice of venues was diverse, which I think gave everyone something to do and a global landscape.

Éric Grebille: I agree with everything David-Alexandre said. If I had to remember anything, it would be a few of the cultural sites I visited, which really showed the level and quality of what was going on in the United Arab Emirates. First and foremost, the Louvre Abu Dhabi, which is quite exceptional and very inspiring, but there are other very interesting structures, whether in Charjah or at the Jameel Arts Centre in Dubai. We could see that the country was already very advanced and committed, and that things were happening there that were both challenging and sophisticated. So our offering and our work had to match the level that was already in place, and we had to be able to create a differentiating offering with our own contributions.

In concrete terms, what actions have been put in place to best support you in this ecosystem with its specific workings?

David-Alexandre Chanel: In terms of support, there was a lot of feedback on the specific players we wanted to see, and the appointments were well chosen. I was very happy with the ones we found, and even impressed by some of the meetings, particularly with one of the very senior people at Emaar, which is a huge organization in Dubai. On site, even if there were other requests during the week, they were heard and I really appreciated this part of the personalized support.

Éric Grebille: I agree with what David-Alexandre says, it was a bit of haute couture for us, because the appointments were well prepared upstream by the whole team from the Embassy, the French Institute and Business France. When we arrived at the appointments, the people in front of us were well informed about who we were and already had ideas about what we could do together. In the pre-accompaniment, as a French institution, it was interesting to familiarize ourselves with this Anglo-Saxon culture of knowing how to present a project, to be efficient, to get straight to the point on concepts and projects to be effective.

If I had to remember anything, it was some of the cultural sites visited, which really gave the level and quality of what was going on in the United Arab Emirates.

A third phase of the program includes a complementary individual immersion in the second half of 2024. Are you planning to take part? Augmenta has already completed this third phase for the Canada program, what do you remember about it?

David-Alexandre Chanel : For Canada, actually, I did phase 2 and phase 3. Phase 2 was similar to the United Arab Emirates and I also have good memories of it. Phase 3 was a little more complicated because I thought the support would be similar to phase 2 and I didn't get as much out of it as I would have liked. As far as the United Arab Emirates are concerned, I don't think we'll be doing the next phases, precisely because phase 2 gave us an idea of what was needed, and in our case, it won't justify opening a real office there. We're more interested in developing partners in the region and having a presence without the need to deploy a large structure.

Éric Grebille : We're still thinking about all this, because, whether it's for South Korea or the United Arab Emirates, we've developed quite a few fairly serious contacts, and we're now entering a rather long period of time to refine ideas, projects and sort out contacts. I can't say at the moment whether we'll commit to phase 3 immediately or whether we'll end up activating it a little later. There's also some feasibility work going on internally to see which teams we can mobilize, and I'm keeping a close eye on that because we'd be interested in pursuing that approach.

Do you already have any development options as a result of the ICC Immersion program? Has it brought you contacts and opportunities for the future?

David-Alexandre Chanel : We're still in talks with some people, including the Museum of the Future, a player we visited during the collective immersion phase. We've got a big project with a very well-known artist, which will take place between October and November and will join the museum for years to come. We're still in touch with a few other players and have potential projects in Dubai, but for the moment, no others have been signed.

Éric Grebille: There are some real opportunities that can be created and we've been in discussions for several weeks with two players we met thanks to this program for the United Arab Emirates part. It's the same for Korea, where we're currently talking to three players. It's still a little early to say what the outcome will be, but in any case, the serious contacts and opportunities offered are the fruits of this program.