BORDERLESS gets an update! A brand-new special project, INTER BEE MEDIA Biz, is launching!
One of the hot topics at this year's Inter BEE is that INTER BEE BORDERLESS, a special event that has featured cutting-edge sessions from the media content industry every year, has changed its name. It is INTER BEE MEDIA Biz.
BORDERLESS was a word that conceptually described the disappearance of media boundaries, but by naming the business areas, the corner's content will be easily understood by both exhibitors and visitors. The “Video Marketing Lounge” has also been added to the exhibit space, aiming to attract visitors who are interested in digital marketing. At the first meeting held in mid-April, the Advisory Board members met together for the first time to exchange ideas on the direction of this year's sessions. I, Osamu Sakai, the organizer of the team, would like to share with you the MEDIA Biz from my perspective.
（Osamu Sakai, Media Consultant）
New members added to identify key words in the turbulent media trends
MEDIA Biz, through its predecessors CONNECTED and BORDERLESS, has grown into one of the main attractions of Inter BEE, attracting many visitors with three to four sessions on a special stage each day during the three-day event. To this end, the elite members will bring together their knowledge and expertise to promote the project. Members from the previous year include Tomoko Hasegawa, contents business journalist; Hiromasa Takazawa, TBS TV; Yoshio Mikazuki, NTV; Koji Nagae, TVQ Kyushu Broadcasting; and a new member, Satoru Watanabe, from NHK this year. Including the author, the six members will plan more than 10 sessions. This year, in particular, there has been intense activity in both the mass media and the Internet media, and there is a wide range of issues. At the first meeting, we first shared as much as possible our respective awareness of the issues, and in order to align our perspectives, we identified and categorized the keywords that were of interest.
100 years of broadcasting, 20 years of YouTube, and the future of the media industry that has been obscured by the milestones.
The year 2025 marks 100 years of broadcasting and 30 years since the Internet was introduced to the general public with Windows 95. It will also be 20 years since the launch of YouTube in 2005 and 10 years since the launch of TVer in 2015. The year 2025 will be a milestone year for the media industry, but rather than settling down, the media industry is in turmoil with no clear direction to go.
The brainstorming session by a team of top experts produced a wide range of keywords across various fields. Many of the terms had a sharp edge—something only this particular group could have come up with. Unlike in previous years, there were also wordings that touched on the relationship between politics and media, such as “media and democracy.” Concerns about the crisis in online advertising were also raised. While some keywords reflected an attempt to foresee industry realignments, others focused on technical areas like generative AI and virtual production. Additionally, keywords related to the global expansion of content and those addressing industry ethics and standards also emerged as important themes.
Looking at all of this, it’s clear that the range of themes MEDIA Biz should address is extremely broad, making it difficult to unify them. What we've gathered here are merely hints to help guide the session planning process. It will likely take until the end of summer to shape everything into concrete plans. We hope to keep you updated on how the discussions progress. Please look forward to seeing what kind of sessions will be featured in November!
