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Princess’ Foundation details 2020 achievements in annual report

by: Stephanie Horsman
25/08/2021

Despite the pandemic and all the restrictions that it brought, the Princess Charlene of Monaco Foundation was able to move forward with several key projects and programmes centred on water safety and drowning prevention, as well as putting on events, assisting in Covid prevention missions and welcoming a new ambassador.
The Princess Charlene of Monaco Foundation this week released its 2020 activity report, highlighting the programmes, projects and key moments from the previous year, notably several key missions in 17 countries, a mask distribution scheme during the height of the first wave of the pandemic, the Le Mans virtual race, the Monaco Water Bike Challenge and the welcoming of a new ambassador, Peter Sagan.
The main focus of the Princess’ Foundation has always been on water safety, and whilst the majority of the activities were geared for this, the pandemic gave them a chance to offer help in other ways as well.
“2020 was a strange year for the Princess Charlene of Monaco Foundation, as it was for many humanitarian associations and NGOs around the world,” said Gareth Wittstock, the foundation’s General Secretary.“Fortunes changed and swayed, initial disappointments gave way to hope, and missed opportunities quickly turned into brand new ideas for the future. They were trying times for everyone.
“Throughout 2020, we remained strongly committed to fighting for the health and development of all children. We remained strongly committed to the fight against drowning, and we chose to commit to the fight against Covid-19.”
Princess Charlene herself reiterated her goals for the Foundation but acknowledged the limitations that 2020 brought.
“The primary mission of my foundation is to save lives by fighting against drowning, which results in an increasing number of deaths every year,” said the Princess. “Drowning rates continued to be of concern in many countries in 2020. Children had even more restricted access to pools and facilities enabling them to learn how to swim and to protect themselves against water hazards.”
The year in numbers
The Foundation, which was created in 2012, has since sponsored 398 projects in 38 countries around the world benefitting 864,465 individuals as of the end of last year.
In 2020 alone, the Foundation was instrumental in teaching 12,172 people to swim, gave 121,541 water safety skills, and educated 6,915 in the values of sport. The Foundation’s total investment in the projects came to €531,258.
The Foundation increased social media presence and had 7,000 Instagram followers, 21,000 Facebook followers and 19,327 YouTube hits.
Projects
The Foundation hosted drowning prevention and learn to swim missions in several countries, including in Burkino Faso, Bangladesh, Cameroon, Canada, France, Ghana, Senegal, Tanzania, Sri Lanka, Serbia, Greece, Sudan, South Africa, Cambodia and the USA. This was enhanced by the online drowning awareness programme launched in summer 2020, which reminded people of water hazards throughout the summer season and got 34,000 views.
Additionally, The Foundation supported projects centred on Sport and Education to promote well-being and good childhood development. To this end, they hosted ‘Education through the values of sport’ missions in South Africa, Georgia, Madagascar and Monaco.
The Foundation took a different route when the pandemic hit, and distributed masks to institutions and organisations who were in desperate need of PPE in the early days of the first lockdown. Additionally, the Foundation took part in the 24 Hours of Le Mans virtual race with their own team on the roster with team members Francesco Castellacci, Giancarlo Fisichella and Felipe Massa as well as a sim racer, Tony Mella.
The Calvi-Monaco Water Bike Challenge also returned despite the health restrictions, which pitted the Princess Charlene-led Team Serenity against Team Notorious, headed up by Gareth Wittstock.
Finally, the Foundation welcomed a new ambassador in the form of Serbian cyclist Peter Sagan. The three-time road race world champion joined the foundation as a face of the organisation and said at the time of his appointment that it was “an honour and a privilege for me to become an Ambassador of the Princess Charlene of Monaco Foundation and to contribute to its important mission.

Princess Charlene “thrilled” to reunite with Prince and children

by: Cassandra Tanti
25/08/2021

Prince Albert and six-year-old twins Prince Jacques and Princess Gabriella have joined Princess Charlene in South Africa as she recovers from her recent surgery.
The princess, who has been in her homeland since earlier this year, took to Instagram to share the long-awaited reunion of her family.
The Palace recently announced that Prince Albert would be joining the princess as she recovers from a four-hour surgery undertaken on Friday 13th August.
Princess Charlene shared pictures on social media with the caption, “I am so thrilled to have my family back with me ❤️. (Gabriella decided to give herself a haircut!!!) Sorry my Bella I tried my best to fix it”.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CS_VuctjIN1/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
 
The photos indeed appear to show that the young princess attempted to give herself the same trendy haircut as her mother. The shots were taken by photographer Christian Sperka, the same photographer who captured Princess Charlene’s rhino conservation work in May.
The last time Prince Albert and their children were in South Africa was in early June, when the princess shared snaps of the family together on a safari.
Speaking to local media South Africa Radio 702 earlier this month, Princess Charlene revealed that she is not due to return to the Principality of Monaco until October when she is expected to be fully recovered from a severe ETN (ear, throat, nose) infection.
 
 
Photo: Instagram @hshprincesscharlene
 
 

Monaco to enter into NFT market

by: Cassandra Tanti
25/08/2021

AS Monaco has unveiled a two-season partnership with fantasy football platform Sorare, which will allow the club to enter the world of NFTs (Non Fungible Tokens) for the first time.
With partnerships already with Bayern Munich, Juventus, and Liverpool, Sorare has cards from more than 155 football clubs and over 450,000 registered users on the platform, of which 100,000 are active every month.
The deal with Monaco will allow fans, collectors and fantasy football players to trade and play freely with digital cards of Monaco players. Each of these cards will be verified by blockchain technology, allowing it to be certified and therefore non-fungible.
“It is an original and innovative way of connecting AS Monaco fans with the club and the players on an increasingly renowned platform, which fits perfectly with our digital development,” said Oleg Petrov, Vice-President and CEO of AS Monaco. “This arrival in the NFT world will also give the club exposure to a fast-growing market and an opening to a new audience. We are looking forward to the start of this collaboration.”
Sorare was founded in 2018, focussing on blockchain digital collectibles and its global fantasy football. The platform has had a card sales volume of over $80 million since January 2021 across 150 countries.
“NFTs are the future of global sports fandom because they allow fans to come together and to feel ownership of the sports they love,” said Nicolas Julia, CEO and co-founder of Sorare. “This partnership isn’t just a sign of Sorare’s growing leadership in the NFT sports space, it is a major signal of intent by the sporting world that it sees Sorare’s unique ability to connect fans with sports through NFTs a crucial part of their plans for the future. AS Monaco is one of the best club in the world, home to some of the most exciting clubs and footballers on earth. We are looking forward to working together in the years ahead.”
 
 
Image courtesy AS Monaco
 
 

Relive the Monaco Streaming Festival this week

by: Katie Lister
23/08/2021

In July, the Monaco Streaming Film Festival (MCSFF) took its first steps on the red carpet and successfully launched its inaugural year at the Grimaldi forum while livestreamed worldwide for a global audience to partake in the action on the ground.

Those who missed it are in luck as this Tuesday 24th and Wednesday 25th August the festival will livestream a free all-access reprise of the best keynote speeches and panel discussions from the conference half of the original four-day event, along with highlights from the awards night.

In collaboration with entertainment media partner Variety and other partners, the two-day event is chock-full of content worth tuning in to and intake all of the valuable industry insight. The hybrid summit-meets-film festival in July brought together film, media, technology leaders and talent to discuss everything surrounding the technology-driven streaming industry as it stands and where it is headed.

The Monaco Streaming Film Festival – in conjunction with Grundy Media Ltd. (The Reg Grundy Innovation Award), The Princess Grace Foundation, The White Feather Foundation and The GEMA Foundation, was born out of the fact that there was no international festival in existence that celebrated and centered the conversation around the dominating streaming sector. Nor was there a festival that leveraged the power of streaming technology to bring it to the masses of film and content lovers worldwide in real-time. The annual awards in Hollywood – the Oscars, the Golden Globes, the SAG Awards – have been churning out Netflix, HBO Max, and Amazon Studios nominations and wins.

The streaming sector deserved a festival of its own to reflect the sign of the times and to flow with the ever-evolving content landscape. The festival has also taken a new, more dynamic approach by including other channels of content storytelling including YouTube and social media platforms like TikTok, Instagram and Facebook.

“For the first festival of its kind we are delighted that it turned out to be such a success with so many participating in-person and online,” says Christian Moore, the festival’s Co-Founder and Founder of GEMA Foundation.  “We aim to draw on the experience and make our next festivals even more beneficial and impactful.”

The Monaco Streaming Film Festival and Grundy Media, an iconic brand in global entertainment, have joined forces with a shared belief that bold vision and precise execution can forever enhance the media industry to move people on a global scale.

​​“From the start, we envisioned a media event that would be as modern and connective as the world of streaming and was totally in line with Reg Grundy’s personal visions,” said Jo Cullen-Cronshaw, CEO of RG Capital Group and Director of Grundy Media Ltd.  “We couldn’t be more pleased with the level of success the Festival and our Reg Grundy Innovation Award achieved. It’s exciting to connect with an even larger audience who we hope to see live at the Festival in 2022.”

Economically speaking, the Principality of Monaco has the potential to greatly benefit from the festival by not only drawing in local business and tourism surrounding the in-person festival every year, but also on a global scale through the festival’s streaming platform open to a worldwide audience.

“The film industry has undergone a significant shift as the streaming services sector continues to grow its market share. Streaming services have become a viewer’s preferred way to experience favourite films, shows and documentaries, to watch YouTube and to create or engage with social media content. The Covid-19 pandemic has accelerated streaming dominance due to the global community being hunkered down at home for the bulk of the past one and a half years.

The market for streaming services grew by 37% in 2020, with most of the growth coming from Disney+ which hit over 73 million subscribers in its first year. The global video streaming market was valued at USD 39.610 billion in the year 2018, USD 50.11 billion in 2020, and is expected to reach USD 102.0971 billion by 2023, growing at 20.8% CAGR.  Innovations, such as blockchain technology and artificial intelligence, to improve video quality are expected to boost the market growth.

‘No Time To Die’ premier in London and Monaco

Actor Daniel Craig has a lot to be happy about these days, partly thanks to his alter-ego James Bond, and partly because of his streaming platform-related projects and successes.
Firstly, the Bond part: the long-awaited world premiere of ‘No Time To Die’ – the 25th film from the Bond franchise – will at last take place in London on 28th September. We are most certain that Craig is breathing a sigh of relief along with Bond film lovers worldwide that his final act as 007 is finally coming to light after one and a half years of several premiere date delays due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The next day on 29th September, Monaco will play host to an exclusive screening of the film followed by a Casino Royale Dinatoire at the Casino de Monte-Carlo. The exclusive 007 Monaco evening – deemed ‘The World’s Most Immersive James Bond Experience’ – will celebrate the film’s Director and Princess Grace Award Winner Cary Joji Fukunaga as Guest of Honour, while also celebrating the life of former Bond and long-time Monaco resident Sir Roger Moore who passed away in 2017.

Proceeds from the evening will benefit the Princess Grace Foundation-USA. The event is sponsored by and partnered with the Société des Bains de Mer, Blackwell Rum and the Monaco Ambassadors Club, and proudly supported by Monaco Life as a media partner.

Daniel Craig capitalising on streaming

Daniel Craig is cashing in big-time as of late thanks to the streaming sector. It goes without saying that James Bond films, which release only in cinemas, are always massive box office successes revenue-wise. Craig’s streaming platform projects are raking in the dough even more so. According to Variety last week, he has reportedly made to-date a cool $100-million just from the yet-to-be-released sequels to Rian Johnson’s Netflix film Knives Out.

Netflix compensates movie stars for the projected back-end box office participation they would reap if their movies were released exclusively in theaters. This combined with all of his other year-to-date earnings have made him the world’s highest-paid actor this year.

The streaming sector is worth investing time into, learning about, and taking part in as it is clearly thriving and its future is so blindingly bright.

Most poignantly: streaming content has the constant attention of billions of people worldwide morning, noon and night, and attention is one of the most valuable currencies.
Register here and watch (for free) the best takeaways from the Monaco Streaming Film Festival’s inaugural year for free this Tuesday and Wednesday: https://live.streamingff.com/

Katie Lister is the Monaco Streaming Festival’s founding Head of Marketing and Partnerships. 

Everything you need to know about La Vita Monte-Carlo

by: Cassandra Tanti
23/08/2021

In keeping with its ‘Life is an art’ concept, Monte-Carlo SBM will stage La Vita Monte-Carlo in September with a month-long programme that covers all of life’s pleasures.  
The luxurious Monte-Carlo lifestyle would not be possible without experiences such as drinking or lunching on a terrace, strolling along the seafront, listening to a concert, shopping, enjoying incredible encounters or basking in the thrill of the game.
So, from mid-September to mid-November, La Vita Monte-Carlo will host unique events at various SBM resorts.
It all kicks off on 10th September with the La Vita Monte-Carlo Gala Dinner in the Salle Empire at the Hôtel de Paris Monte-Carlo. The next day will see the Monte-Carlo Vendanges with three unmissable wine-themed encounters hosted by the Hôtel Hermitage Monte-Carlo. La Vita Monte-Carlo will light up autumn in the Monte-Carlo Société des Bains de Mer Group establishments until 10th November with various exciting events.
La Vita Monte-Carlo: exclusive ‘Candlelight’ evening at the Hôtel de Paris Monte-Carlo
The Salle Empire will be the opening scene for La Vita Monte-Carlo, hosting a candlelit gala dinner with a unique floral backdrop on 10th September at the Hôtel de Paris Monte-Carlo. During this special dinner, coordinated by Chef Franck Cerutti and his teams, La Vita Monte-Carlo will shine the spotlight on Monte-Carlo savoir-vivre and three talented young female artists: young Monegasque prodigy, pianist Stella Almondo, who, at just 15, will entertain with the classic notes of Chopin which will unfold into Jazz. She’ll then hand over the reins to the young DJ Irène Drésel, a rising star on the new French electronic scene, who will lift the mood with a hypnotic set before returning to close the evening with one last performance. Finally, singer Elodie Frégé’s beautiful and captivating voice will ring out around the Salle Empire during this spectacular evening.
La Vita Monte-Carlo: vendanges at the Hôtel Hermitage Monte-Carlo
After the music comes the Vendanges Monte-Carlo. From 11th September, real grape vines will run freely in front of and inside the Hôtel Hermitage Monte-Carlo, passing through the lobby and corridors en route to the Yannick Alléno restaurant.
With special significance at Monte-Carlo Société des Bains de Mer, this theme has inspired a number of prestigious events:
Thursday 16th September – ‘Champagne: a new destiny’ tasting convention
Head to the Salle Belle Epoque at the Hôtel Hermitage Monte-Carlo to sample the finest champagnes, served by Frédéric Rouzaud himself, Chair and owner of Louis Roederer, who will explain the revolution currently transforming Champagne.
Saturday 18th September – 300% Dinner at the Yannick Alléno restaurant at the Hôtel Hermitage Monte-Carlo
100% Yannick Alléno, there in person to prepare the dinner, 100% Chapoutier whose excellence dates back to 1808, and 100% Parker, i.e. only wines with the top score, the Holy Grail, from the famous American critic.
Friday 24th September – ‘Creating an original, high-quality wine cellar’ tasting convention
Tasting session hosted by Angélique de Lencquesaing, founder of the Ideal Wine site. An opportunity to discover rare wines and wonders far off the beaten track, and to rediscover the essentials.
La Vita Monte-Carlo: Tropical and Havana Night at the Monte-Carlo Bay Hotel & Resort
The Monte-Carlo Bay Hotel and Resort invites guests on a fun and relaxing journey through La Vita Monte-Carlo with two unique events:
Friday 17th September – Tropical Night at the lagoonside
The programme includes a sensory awakening with live DJing by Mr Jaz with support from artist Micael Sene, magical close-ups with Simeon Wolfgang, aquatic ballet and fireworks. Chef Marcel Ravin will take charge in the kitchen, creating daring flavours to tantalise the taste buds and whisk guests more than 8,000 km away from Monaco… to the Amazon rainforest.
Saturday 9th October – Blue Gin Havana Night
With Latin tunes and Cuban flavours. The chance to sip a creative rum-based cocktail, discover the secrets of cigar smoking or take your first salsa steps.
Preview 8th September
Monte-Carlo Beach will host a preview of La Vita Monte-Carlo with a picnic on 8th September at Domaine d’Agerbol, Roquebrune-Cap-Martin – the garden that supplies the starred Elsa restaurant with organic products.
 
 
 

Luxe Pack Monaco goes greener

by: Stephanie Horsman
23/08/2021

Luxe Pack, the “go-to” event for premium packaging for the past 30 years, is returning in September with a new green twist, supported by the Prince’s Foundation. 

Luxury packaging managers from around the world are uniting in the Principality for Luxe Pack Monaco. The three-day conference, which was cancelled last year due to Covid, will be offering creative innovations, sustainable solutions, new designs and digital advances for companies looking for alternative packaging for their products.

Whether it is for jewellery, perfumes, cosmetics, fashion, food, drink or anything in between, the 490 exhibitors at Luxe Pack have a vast array of choice for producer looking to have a cutting-edge look and the most-up-date packaging.

The show has also attracted, in addition to hundreds of exhibitors, more than 70 speakers and expects to receive over 9,000 visitors from 98 countries.

The packaging options are the main attraction, but the event will also provide company representatives with conferences and workshops designed to keep them up on market trends and inspired by successful case studies.

The top speaker at this year’s show is Jacques Playe, the Global Head of Packaging and Product Development at global beauty giant L’Oréal. His speech, ‘Packaging and Plastics: what future in the luxury sector?’ will be geared toward understanding and anticipating the future use of plastics in a world that is increasingly going green.

Luxe Pack’s on-going commitment to environmentally friendly alternatives in packaging, as well as to meet consumer demand in this area, led them to organise the Luxe Pack in green Awards, as part of the convention. Five jurists, including L’Oréal’s Playe and the Vice President of the Prince Albert II Foundation, Olivier Wenden, will select manufacturers who highlight eco-designed solutions and responsible approaches.

Additionally, many of the workshops will focus on eco-friendly solutions, with a big emphasis on sustainable and recycled packaging, lessening carbon footprints and the use of mono-material options.

Luxe Pack Monaco runs from 27th to 29th September at the Grimaldi Forum. The event is for professionals only, and free entry will be given to those who present their electronic badge or programme. All health and safety measures will be followed throughout the show to ensure the well-being of all involved.

 
 
Photo source: Grimaldi Forum