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Month: October 2021

Next MYS to feature Augmented Reality, NFT drops

by: Stephanie Horsman
21/10/2021

New to the next Monaco Yacht Show will be the launch of an emissions-free superyacht design by 3Deluxe, which will be up for sale as an NFT (non-fungible token).
SuperWorld, the virtual real estate platform that has mapped the entire surface of the globe, has partnered with German design platform 3Deluxe to bring augmented reality (AR) experiences to attendees of the Monaco Yacht Show.
Next year in the Principality, 3Deluxe will present a design study for a zero-emission superyacht.
“Working with 3Deluxe is ideal for SuperWorld,” said SuperWorld Co-Founder and CEO Hrish Lotlikar. “Our vision is to help build a better world, and a move toward greater sustainability for yachts – or any form of transportation – aligns perfectly with our business model. This partnership gives us and our users the perfect opportunity to showcase AR and NFTs that affect profound change.”
The superyacht design will be available to view on the SuperWorld app and will go on sale as a NFT in SuperWorld’s NFT Salon during the show.
“Ideally, the ship will be made available by the future owner for educational purposes while it is at rest,” said the 3Deluxe team. “Our aim is to use the project as a communicative platform for discussion of the complex challenges of our time and as an unconventional location for summits, conferences and think tanks.”
With this enterprise, half the proceeds from the sale of the 3Deluxe superyacht’s NFT will go to Sea Change, a marine conservation association that produced the 2020 Oscar-winning documentary My Octopus Teacher, about a filmmaker who forged an unusual bond with an octopus living in the South Africa kelp forest.
The Monaco Yacht Show, similarly, is featuring more future-focused designs and emphasising a sustainable approach through new features like this year’s Yacht Design and Innovation Hub, where new products and innovative solutions in super yachting were on display. Additionally, exhibitors at the event were highly skewed toward designs that limit environmental damage and concentrated on sustainability through inventions like new propulsion systems that lessen emissions.
 
 
Visualisation by 3Deluxe
 
 

The Jacksons to headline NYE

by: Cassandra Tanti
21/10/2021

It’s been announced that The Jacksons will perform on New Year’s Eve in Monaco at the Salle des Étoiles.
Arguably the most recognisable family in the music business, the five brothers – Jackie, Tito, Jermaine, Marlon and Michael, originally from Indiana, were first known as the Jackson 5 and rose to prominence with incredible musical talent and spectacular choreography. They also served as a huge springboard for the solo career of the King of Pop: Michael Jackson.
From ‘I Want You Back’ and ‘ABC’, to ‘I’ll be there’ and ‘Can you feel it’ … The Jacksons have sold more than 200 million records around the world.
Today, The Jacksons is made up of the original four members for an energetic show featuring all the famous dance moves and costumes.
Following a performance at the Summer Sporting Festival in 2019, The Jacksons will return to the stage of the Salle des Étoiles in Monaco where they will play on 31st December to mark the start of the New Year.
Tickets are priced from €550 per person.
 
Photo by Claude Vanheye
 
 
 

Oceanographic Museum launches fun new contest

by: Stephanie Horsman
21/10/2021

The Oceanographic Museum is organising a competition during the upcoming school holidays inviting people to imitate their favourite marine species for a chance to be the face of their next media campaign. 

This half term break, the Oceanographic Museum is putting out a call for people who have a knack for impersonating to be part of a special event called #TousOceano (All Ocean). Participants will be asked to select their favourite marine species from a selection and take a photo of themselves mimicking that animal.

The objective is to create awareness of the bond that exists between humans and animal life in order to mobilise people to live more sustainably for the future of our shared planet.

Awards will be handed out, including a grand prize for the best imitation, which is to become the face of the museum’s next media campaign that launches during the Christmas holidays.  

In order to take part, contestants must go online to www.tous.oceano.org or visit the photo booth located on the ground floor of the museum. A list of marine animals will pop up and players can choose between many species including the ribbon moray, the napoleon fish, the cowfish and the rayed jellyfish. Participants can photograph themselves doing their best imitation of their chosen animal, then share it on social media with the hashtag #TousOceano.  

Other prizes up for grabs are Waterlover solar products from the Biotherm brand, a brunch at Stars’N’Bars, a leisure day at the Monte-Carlo Bay Hotel & Resort, a gourmet break at the Hôtel Métropole, Beuchat snorkelling equipment, a free book creation with Fabrique à Histoires de Lunii, eco-responsible items from the Museum Shop such as water bottles, bags, and toothbrushes, free tickets, and ‘Sponsor a fish’ kits offered by the Association of Friends of the Oceanographic Museum.

The Oceanographic Museum is also offering fun distractions during the school holidays including a 30- or 60-minute sea-themed escape game, their Immersion 360º virtual reality experience, the touch basin, which allows visitors to pet crabs, starfish, sea cucumbers and many other marine animals, and Club Oceano where kids aged nine to 12 spend a magical week at the museum being part of the team, participating in games and activities and learning about the sea.

 

Renowned cellist playing three shows this month

by: Stephanie Horsman
21/10/2021

Internationally celebrated French cellist Aurélien Pascal is performing next week at venues in Monaco, Beaulieu and Menton, giving everyone a chance to see this young virtuoso live on stage. 

At only 24 years of age, cellist Aurélien Pascal has already made a name for himself in the ultra-competitive world of music, garnering international attention and winning several prestigious awards. Now he is coming to the Côte d’Azur for three concerts, giving audiences the opportunity to see for themselves what all the fuss is about.

Pascal will first be playing at St Paul’s Anglican Church in Monaco on Thursday 28th October at 6:30pm, followed by two concerts on Saturday 30th October at St John’s Anglican Church in Menton at 3pm, and St Michael’s Anglican Church in Beaulieu-sur-Mer at 8:30pm.

His repertoire will include Bach’s Suite nº2 BWV 1008, Cassado’s Suite, and Britten’s Suite nº2 Opus 80.

Born into a family of musicians in 1994, he has been labelled a virtuoso by critics and has been the recipient of prizes including 2nd Prize at the 2013 International Paulo Competition, the Grand Prix, Prix du Public and the Best Performance of the Toch Concerto at the 2014 Emanuel Feuermann Competition, and more recently he won 4th prize in the 2017 Queen Elisabeth Competition, becoming the youngest finalist in its history.

Pascal has performed with orchestras throughout Europe such as the Moscow Tchaikovsky Symphony, the Deutsche Radio Philharmonie Saarbrucken, the Nuremberg Symphony, the Kammerakademie Potsdam, the Tapiola Sinfonietta, the Orchestre National des Pays de la Loire, the Monte Carlo Philharmonic and the Barcelona Symphony Orchestra under the direction of conductors such as Vladimir Fedoseyev, John Storgårds, Pascal Rophé, Christoph Poppen, and Clemens Schuldt.

As a recitalist, he has performed at numerous festivals including Verbier, Colmar, Prades, Schloss Elmau, the Flâneries de Reims, La Folle Journée de Nantes et du Japon, Festival de Radio-France Montpellier, Beethovenfest in Bonn and the Rencontres Musicales d’Evian with partners including the Modigliani Quartet, Pavel Kolesnikov, Christian Tetzlaff, Emmanuel Pahud Augustin Dumay and András Schiff.

 
 
 

Coral Reef Fund seeks advisory board

by: Cassandra Tanti
20/10/2021

A call for applications for advisory board members of the Global Fund for Coral Reefs, supported by the Prince Albert Foundation, is now open to scientists, government representatives and blue economy experts.
The Global Fund for Coral Reefs (GFCR) was launched on the sidelines of the 75th UN General Assembly in September of 2020 by a coalition of private foundations, Member States, UN agencies and financial institutions with the ambition to mobilise USD $625 million for coral reef conservation over the next decade.
In January 2021, the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation joined Germany and the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation in contributing more than €10 million to the Global Coral Reef Fund, kickstarting the unprecedented campaign.
The GFCR is the first UN fund dedicated to SDG 14, ‘Life Below Water’, and the only global blended finance instrument dedicated to coral reefs.  The GFCR leverages grants to incubate investable projects and unlock private sector investment in the blue economy to address local drivers of reef degradation and recovery for local communities.
The Fund promotes a ‘protect-transform-restore-recover’ approach concentrated on reef ecosystems with the greatest chance of surviving climate change. Programming has already launched in Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Kenya, Tanzania and the Bahamas and, by early 2022, is expected to begin in the Philippines, Solomon Islands, Belize, Mexico, Honduras, Guatemala, Indonesia, and the Maldives.
Three rotational seats on the advisory board will be held by scientists with extensive expertise on the disciplines of coral reef science, marine protected area management and socio-economic dynamics; three rotational seats will be occupied by representatives from national governments with ministries or public research institutions with conservation and sustainable development mandates to provide guidance on policy, planning, and stakeholder engagement; and three rotational seats will be held by blue economy experts with strong knowledge and practice in innovation and blended finance, and socio-economic issues in coral reef countries.
 
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“The system is weighted towards destruction, not preservation”

by: Stephanie Horsman
20/10/2021

In the run up to the COP26 climate change conference in Glasgow later this month, Monaco’s Jean Castellini joined finance ministers from around the globe to discuss challenges and plan strategies.
Climate change and finance may not seem like natural bedfellows, but future economies will either sink or swim depending on how the world’s financial leaders respond and adapt to climate change protocol.
To address the situation, the Coalition of Finance Ministers for Climate Action meeting was held on Tuesday 12th October. Jean Castellini, Monaco’s Minister of Finance and the Economy, participated in this conference which saw 65 developed and developing nations exchange and collaborate on economic tactics that take climate change challenges into account.
This group of countries accounts for 39% of greenhouse gas emissions and 63% of global GDP, making them a powerful force.
“As Ministers of Finance, you hold the key to success for COP26 and beyond,” UN Secretary-General António Guterres said in a video message for the meeting, held from Washington, DC. He went on to emphasise that countries must “swiftly close the emissions gap” as well as close the finance gap to keep climate change goals on track.
To highlight the efforts of the Principality, Minister Castellini recorded a video message underlining the importance of the ‘Monaco Sustainable Finance’ initiative, in coordination with professionals in the Monegasque market, as well as the growth of sustainable investments within the Constitutional funds reserve and its management according to ESG type objectives.
“Earlier this year, I mentioned to all members of the coalition the numerous achievements… for the fight against climate change around the world. They included broadening the scope of sustainable assets in our reserve fund and fostering sustainable impact innovation and technologies in all investments of the fund, but more broadly in the Principality and throughout the actions of His Highness’s foundation.
“Since then, two other steps were taken. Our reserve fund is in the process of setting up a Paris-aligned ambition for its investments with 10 specific actions which I will personally closely monitor and control.”
The fund the Minister speaks of today is over 50% invested with an objective of sustainability, with a marked increase expected by 2025.
When speaking of the Monaco Sustainable Finance Initiative, the second step the country is taking, he underlined “the strong mobilisation of our banking and asset management industry. They will offer sustainable products and investment policies and use simple metrics of reporting.”
Monaco is at the forefront of this kind of change, with the UN Secretary General calling on others to follow suit.
“Your representatives at the boards of multilateral development banks could request management to present as soon as possible a set of concrete measures, implementable by the end of next year at the latest, to address red tape issues and improve the speed and efficiency of systems and processes in all development finance institutions,” he said.
He also urged ministers to allocate more funds to support necessary policy changes in developing countries, as well as to alter how GDP is calculated to reflect how nature and natural resources are part of a nation’s wealth.
“Nature’s resources still do not figure in countries’ calculations of wealth,” said Mr. Guterres. “We need nature-based solutions for adaptation and mitigation. The current system is weighted towards destruction, not preservation.”
Hopes are pinned on COP26 to make these requests realities as climate change is affecting lives and livelihoods more with every passing year. The summit will run from 31st October to 12th November at the Scottish Event Campus in Glasgow.
 
 
Photo of Iceland by Stephen Leonardi on Unsplash