midem 2012 brings together music makers, cutting-edge technologies, brands and talent to enrich the passionate relationship between people and music and transform audience engagement.

Because music is at the very heart of midem, this year sees the inaugural three-day midem Festival, featuring great talent from around the world, a whole series of midem off gigs throughout the city celebrating up and coming artists, international showcases and a gala Classical Night. And the final ingredient to go into this giant music compilation is a new, dedicated Direct2Fan Camp for artists and music entrepreneurs and midem academy combining a rich learning and mentoring programme developed in association with Berklee School of Music.

This year, we’ll be taking a leap into the future with our Visionary Monday conference offering deep insights on how to engage with audiences in a world connected by music. Speakers will include thought leaders such as Om Malik from GigaOm, Mikael Hed CEO of Rovio and creator of Angry Birds, Dan Rose from Facebook, Grammy Award-winning artist, producer and DJ Marc Ronson, Wendy Clarke from The Coca-Cola Company and Kevin Roberts, CEO Worldwide of leading advertising agency Saatchi & Saatchi. Amazon and Google will also join an exclusive midem debate entitled “How to work with the Fab Four: Lessons for Success.”

The entire technology ecosytem involved in the worlds of music and consumer engagement will come together in Cannes over the next few days. midem’s Innovation Factory is the place to be to hook up with the men and women who are setting the tech pace with their ingenuity. midemlab will focus on the brightest and best projects in its Start-up and App developers Competition. Because we like a challenge at midem, we’ve also invited 30 developers, designers and hackers from around the world to come together at midem hack day to build a brand new generation of music-related. Apps in just 48 hours!

For brands and agencies, midem has created the midem Marketing Campaign Competition, recognizing the best use of music in a marketing campaign. Meanwhile the invitation-only Marketing Soundbox welcomes brands, agencies, artists and tech experts for discussions on how best music and brands can work together.

Music, tech, brands and artists will all be represented at midem. The music industry is re-inventing itself. So is midem. I hope you enjoy and benefit from our new offering.