 I would like to, first of all, welcome everyone in the room and online to this session. I would also like to add that the World Economic Forum and this meeting is going to be bilingual. I will be talking English, but panelists will be speaking Spanish. With me, we have Alberto Velo, the editorial director of news and business news of Grupo Expansión. We also have Daniel Gomez, who is the head of competitive research at the World Economic Forum. Alejandro Cardoso, who is the chief executive officer and president of publicist communication based in Mexico and manages Latin America. Last but definitely not least, Ivan Sanchez, who is director of regional strategy at Denso Aegis Network. Today's conversation will have a backdrop of the launch of the digital media readiness framework produced by the World Economic Forum Global Agenda Council on the future of media entertainment and information. So, I now pass on to Alberto to speak on this framework. Well, thank you. Thank you very much for being here. So, let me now start by, you know, discussing what we're talking about. Hola soy German, a Chilean blogger came to Mexico. It was very welcomed and massively received and the daughters of several people at the newsroom were surprised the fact that a Chilean blogger was being so successful in Mexico speaks of a radical change in the way we communicate. Blogger's production costs are very low, but we're also seeing Mexican-Brazilian producers producing for Netflix. We are seeing a phenomenon like Mercado Livre or Amazon that become regional platforms. We're seeing Spanish media like El País or the New York Times launching Spanish online versions to compete with local dailies and also advertising campaigns on the social media, particularly Facebook, are unbelievable. And we're seeing other campaigns that the social media is changing and they all have something in common and that is being called the World Economic Forum by media information and entertainment. And the framework we are going to present tries to measure or rather to compare the levels of readiness in digital media of different communities, be they countries, cities or regions. I mean the readiness to adopt the content, product services and the apps of these digital media information and how ready is everyone to profit or make the best of the economic phenomena resulting from these goods and services. This initiative comes to life in November 2012 in the GAC Summit, the Global Agenda of WEF in November of 2014 in Dubai. And it also has the participation and collaboration of the Akeo University of Japan and the University of Southern California in the U.S. The methodology we'll be talking about, whose consequences we'll be discussing in greater length, has four major components, has 23 indicators, are existing, others are new indicators that try to measure these skills I was talking about. It also assesses and evaluates gaps between indicators and other indicators in the global competitiveness index. And in short, this is a methodology mapping the relationship and interdependence of each indicator and fourth case studies, revealing the importance of this assessment framework because this can include the use of digital books in schools in Japan and how that is going to change education. And in Chattanooga, we see how a society changes its economy once it's become digital. We also have the Mexican national digital system transforming the way government relates to customers in Pesa and African Kenya that has turned cell phones into a method of payment outside of the banking system or Shikan in China, which is a distant healthcare platform. And these are just a few examples. So let's delve into this. Why is this relevant in Latin America? And what is the importance of being prepared? Did you lead to measure this? Well, thank you, Gilberto. Thank you, everyone, for being here. I feel that this work comes at a very important time for Latin America, particularly because at this juncture, we are looking for new economic or engines for economic growth. Given the falling prices of commodities, coal, oil, other commodities, the region is seeing a significant economic meltdown, and the time has come to transition economies once based in extraction of resources to a knowledge-based economy. What this conceptual framework does is provide a tool for policymakers, yes, and industry to better understand the factors and institutions that will allow countries to develop these new sectors for job creation, new sectors for driving growth, and new sectors for reinventing our economies and implementing this productive transformation. One of these sectors that has been most affected and will continue to be affected is that of government communications, brand communications, individual communications. At Publicis Alejandro, you have your own view of this aspect. So how do you see this framework? Earlier today, I had the chance to lead a working group discussion on Latin America's tourism and business position, and we said that this fourth revolution, the connectivity revolution, will have a far more reaching effect than the previous revolutions, first because of the pace at which this change has taken place and will continue to take place, and its overall scope, how it's affected the lives of people and government agencies as well as private organizations. We are all connected with everyone at all times, and this fourth revolution has meant that the entire ecosystem and organization change radically and get on this monumental change. Another thing is that this change in the communication industry and marketing has forced companies to understand several phenomena. One is the multi-screen phenomena. Today it's a reality that consumers aren't just exposed to information and entertainment on one screen. There's a Garner study that reveals that today all the millennials in 16 countries are performing for activities simultaneously while they consume information content, and by the year 2020 there will be 20.8 million electronic devices connected simultaneously in the world, and the scope is unbelievable, and that forces organizations to understand this as well as the journey and the consumers' behavioral patterns. Another very important factor is the merger of technology and creativity in the world of communication for many decades. We were always based on a strategy and creativity model, and now, just like advertisers and media, have found ourselves forced to introduce other criteria different from our own industry, science technology, and that alchemy of science technology and information entails a fantastic challenge to us all and for brands. And I would like to close by saying that precision marketing, that ability to understand one-on-one the behavioral pattern of a consumer, not just in clusters as it's been done traditionally, men and women in the 2030 age group with ex-income is something of the past, it died years ago. The ability of media, private organizations and institutions to map the behavior of every consumer, not clusters of consumers and establish one-on-one relationships thanks to technology with great supporting ideas behind it is the future. Very well, I mean, this obviously is a triumph thing in Latin America and other parts of the world, but that obviously requires a series of public policy decisions and attitudes by private enterprise that facilitate access to and accessibility as well. One of the things that President Santos and President Marquis have just mentioned. So, Ivan, how do you see this? The truth be said, regulatory bodies, by definition, must know the object of their regulation. That's the starting point of the problem because the internet and digital world is a form in constant expansion. Internet and digital cannot be encompassed and that's why regulatory bodies find it so difficult to pinpoint what to regulate. And this has positive and negative aspects and implications, mind you, because it creates a certain chaos when there is no regulation. Then creativity is stimulated as is entrepreneurship. Disruptive technologies like Uber are the result of this. And if we look at it, Uber, when they come in, they're not looking for technology talent. What they need is PAP people who know public affairs who know how to relate to governments who can devise a normative framework to be legally viable. So, yes, regulation could encourage and stimulate lots of creative people and entrepreneurs. The negative side is that in the absence of regulation, there is no standardization. So if I have a company that has a strong digital component to it, I go to customers and customers may not know how to measure my results and they don't know whether what I do in digital media solutions is good or bad and there we start having problems in business terms. A way out to that negative aspect is to be perfectly honest and simply say that technology is moving at a faster space than politics and to engage more technical people who know how to deal with that constant development in the digital world. A wonderful example is for the former minister of technology in Colombia, Diego Molano. He was minister until last year. He had one of the most important administrations in infrastructure terms. He had his technical background. It was very easy for him to understand the importance of assisting people who have digital businesses. Okay, I'd like to clarify that those 23 indicators I mentioned and make up this methodology or framework are divided into three main areas. One is the environment capability, which is infrastructure and the other is use. And that's how the indicators have been distributed so you understand the makeup of this indicator. If you allow me, could I make an additional comment? Yes, of course. Talking about Uber is a wonderful example because there are others, Airbnb and Netflix have created a new business model, a new business model based on platforms that are no longer on goods and services. And to the extent we understand that phenomenon, the brands, the media, and we can better connect with consumers restructuring and redefining the company's business model based on this concept of platforms where technology is key. It's not simply a matter of adding on the business strategy to the digital component. No, it's the core. And second, the user experience is fundamental as well. This concept of having historically based companies on the strength of a brand as the core pillar, as the axis. Today, the key factor determining the strength of a brand is in just its communication position, but the brand ability to relate constantly and consistently with consumers. Keep talking about this, and it's a fascinating subject, but I just want to make sure that we have the time for questions. Does anyone have questions in the room? Yes. Marta Ortiz, the editor of El Colombiano newspaper, I have a question for you. Three weeks ago, we had the pre-launched preview of a book where he said that behavior has changed in respect of technology and the need for capital has also dropped. I asked him, you know, and where is the regulation? Where's the law? And he said, regretfully, the law will never come because it will never have the ability to come. As you said, when I look at a business like Uber, which is the one you've chosen as an example, I don't think that's such a big problem because the Uber business model is simply giving a different use to existing tools. The thing is no one was prepared for it, but when we look at copyright, and former minister Milano didn't do anything in respect of that part of the regulation, he may have done a lot of things in dissemination and people understanding technology and disseminating it, but he didn't do much in the area of regulation when we speak of copyright, things that are pure common sense. That's where I'd love to see whether the study can help us because that's what worries me, you know. In the dark social, nobody speaks of the dark social, it's there, and this is something we will have to discuss eventually. Yes, and this is one of the points, Daniel, I was going to ask you what the role it plays in the framework is. Let me give you some detail. The work emphasizes the demand side and content generation, which is where intellectual property is going to be very important. The framework identifies a series of specific indicators that are not in the global technology report of the forum that has to do with the quality of the regulation. It's not the quantity of the regulation, but rather far more agile, dynamic, regulatory framework, less industry specific, but a framework that is more flexible and allows us to incorporate these new platform-based business models. The framework gives emphasis to platforms. It also attaches great emphasis to the existence and the ability and the ease of creating those platforms. Another very interesting aspect in the framework is called fair involvement, which has to do with intellectual property or copyright and the respect for intellectual property. The framework does present a structured view of this, and I agree with Ivan. The regulation will tend to always lag behind technological development, hence the need to have quality regulation that will be far more flexible and can adapt easier to all these new realities of the market. We organized a meeting with several industry players, both phone carriers, media editors, Facebook, and this is key. You can ask me how do you measure it, and I am a journalist, I have a question. When are we going to see an indicator ranking countries in terms of who is more or less ready? That's a very clear challenge. What the indicator does is to take existing indicators, and that's on the supply side, which is the availability of infrastructure, the supply of infrastructure, the use of coverage. All that has been very well measured, but the demand-signed content generation, how easily accessible, I mean, can the population engage in the development of this product is something that isn't as well measured. So the challenge is to implement the framework. So there are a series of indicators that are very well measured, while there are others that we are going to have to go out and look for and incorporate. However, the conceptual framework is there. The theory is there, the rationale is there. The indicator framework is there, and now it's a matter of finding no ideas to measure it. I mean, some ideas go along the lines of ideas that are from culture to digital media, or how easy is it to censor content. That's another key aspect. Because what we've seen with the network readiness indicator is that you can have all the infrastructure in the world, but we don't see the development of sectors because maybe you don't have content in local language or there's no relevant content. So how do you go about matching the demand for content with the supply or physical and institutional supply for sustaining all that content? Available? That's a tough question. That's a very good question. Evidently, yes, I do believe that the forum, we just launched the logo information technology report. The new one will be launched in two weeks. We've been publishing it since 2001. You can do benchmarking. You can do follow-up and track the progress of countries in terms of coverage, readiness, and usage. Those are the three areas we measure. We are currently in the process of reviewing and revising the frameworks, and I believe that this work urges us all to work on the other side of demand and to try to incorporate it into the new version of the report. And we will most likely have it ready by next year. I won't commit to a date, but we will hopefully have it ready by next year. That is our project and that is the overall direction, which is equally important. Good afternoon, Adriana Molano, director of colombiadigital.net, and I have specialized in technology for development. What is the perspective, how you are understanding the digital divide, because we know connectivity and infrastructure is one thing, but another very different thing is when actually people are using and making the best of this, these are two different measurements, very complex, even more so when countries like colombia and specifically Medellin, we have video gaming, three-day gaming, but there are other sectors in the city and the country are disconnected and have no digital knowledge. What happens there? I mean, connectivity isn't everything, and that is the essence of this framework. You need culture, education, access, accessibility as well. A wonderful question, and we are very much in line. The World Bank produced its annual report called the digital divide. So we must, or it looks at the importance of understanding what leads to the proper development of new entertainment in the industries, digital industries, to develop the industry, the sector, and there is a very important human capital aspect there. These are the human ability to interact with new technologies and the existence of content, so we have to think about how to generate more appealing and attractive content because you may have connectivity and you don't know what to use it or if you don't have relevant apps for your day-to-day. That's an issue, but there are some very interesting examples in the developing world. In Africa, there are agricultural apps that give you in real time the price of the gold, what is the price there of at this or that market, and with the refugee crisis from the Middle East to Europe, it's unbelievable to see that they are using mobile phones and for web access and social media to connect to their physical networks in the host countries. One of the refugees explained at this meeting that the height of his fear was the moment between Turkey and Greece where there is no coverage in either place. That is the peak point of fear. I mean, they're in a barge, they can, you know, capsize it, but that doesn't scare them. They're scared that they don't have web access. And I think then that there are challenges to generate content, content with the relevant tools for the people. Supplementing what Daniel has said, I think it's equally important to make room for the data discussion and for it to mature because maybe right now we are focused too much on, you know, the theory of numbers and my being tracked in, what have you. And there's a fear that can be actually unfounded because this will translate into benefits for users. Naturally, there are laws like the habeas data that will assure and secure the identity of consumers, but for these platforms that we evolve, we need to migrate this discourse of I am being surveilled to I am being, they are getting to know me to serve me better. Yes, and obviously they can provide a better service like Amazon, you know. It's been a fascinating conversation. I just want to take one last statement from Alejandro and Alberto and then we will be closing the conversation. In this new revolution, a new market reality, I think we will be in a much better position beyond the infrastructure of the technology of the wide range. It's a step forward in which many of the organizations that I interact with, I mean the world level, have understood it and done it, but many others that would surprise us are very late. I think it's the central step, understanding this new reality in different cities that we are used to in recent years. Well, I would like to conclude that we are all waiting, Daniel, for this report to come out and that we can see the countries and in each indicator, how they compare to each other, there is a lot of work here, I invite you to do it. I think you can see this paper if it's available. This paper will be published, right? I think it's already available. It's fascinating how a group of people and different intrusions sat down to think about a way to measure what it's possible that in a country there is a Uder or there is a Netflix or there is a... Well, I'm seeing many in the United States. There is a Waze, from Israel, or there is a free market in Argentina. What makes it possible that this happens? From the point of view of the offer and the demand, it's a fascinating framework. I invite you to see it and I invite the community forum to read the following that we soon have a way to measure all these indicators. Thank you very much.