The news has been known all over France. It is true that the senior of instruction judges in Grasse has been very severe : he has decided to remand on custody the driver responsible for a serious traffic accident while she was phoning with her mobile phone. The accident occurred in Antibes, at the quatre chemins crossroads, late last week. An employee of Antibes city hall, who was driving her car, was called on her mobile phone.
"The Sophia Antipolis sun is not enough to attract young talents" : that is the title of an article of Le Monde newspaper, about the difficulty to recruit in the first European research park. Bruno Aubry, the regional correspondent of the daily, has focused on Amadeus, on the association of the Telecom Valley, on the Sophia Antipolis Foundation, on Sophianet.com, on AG Consulting.
The little war that happened early 1999 about the opening of supermarkets on Sunday morning has been revived in Cannes La Bocca. It stopped with the prefect order of March 22nd 1999 which, after having consulted several supermarket union organisations, forbade to open on Sunday. But, the debate has been revived by the order made late January by the Court of Appeal of Aix-en-Provence. This jurisdiction contested the validity of the prefect order because all involved union organisations did not give their agreement to the closure demand.
The international film festival has chosen its president with the movie director Luc Besson. The other film festival in Cannes, the international advertising film, has also chosen the presidents of its jury. For the 47th Lions that will take place at the palais des festivals in Cannes from June 19th to 24th 2000, three presidents have been nominated. For films and posters, the main category, a highest level creative person has been chosen.
The direction team of the festival de Cannes is in turmoil. Although the succession of president Viot should happen without any problems after the Festival 2000, as Gilles Jacob, the general delegate should take the presidency, it is not the case for the general delegate position. This is still a strategic position : the general delegate of the Festival is in charge of selecting movies. To takeover Gilles Jacob, a successor seemed designated.
The Bernard Chevry Editions company (BC Editions) which was in bankruptcy filling has been bought out by the Textuel company, for an amount which would be up to 10 million francs. Bernard Chevry is the father of great communication congresses in Cannes (Midem, then the MIP). He created the Midem Organisation company, which was sold out to the Reed group in the end of the eighties. Then, Bernard Chevry has launched himself in the publishing industry. BC Editions, rose with the Air Inter "Parcours" magazine.
In expansion for three years, Dufour yachts, the manufacturer of sailboats and motor boats, is strongly settled on the French Riviera. Thus, last week, the company has inaugurated its new nautical base for the French Riviera, at the Port Gallice in Juan-les-Pins. This base has been set up at the place where a shipyard bought out last year. Dufour, traditionally very present in the Atlantic, had already a powerful site in le Var, in Pin Rolland (premises of 3.000 m2). With the Port Gallice base, it confirms the ambitions in the Mediterranean sea.
One of the "affairs" in Nice which has been widely talked about which has been discretely concluded : the sale of "Lou Soubran", the Jacques Médecin's villa. Michel Charasse, who was secretary of the Treasury seized it in September 1992 in order to pay back the fiscal debt of the former mayor of Nice.
Créé en collaboration avec la Fondation Sophia Antipolis, le club Sophia UK a été lancé officiellement mardi 24 avril à Newcastle Upon Tyne. Implanté dans le nord est de la Grande Bretagne, il bénéficie d'une forte mobilisation de ressources et d'énergie pour le développement des secteurs fondés sur le savoir. Ce nouveau club est très lié à la technopole azuréenne. Ses responsables ont déjà participé à plusieurs reprises aux rendez-vous de l'association Sophia Start-up.
Completel is finishing the development of its optical fiber network in the Alpes-Maritimes. The local loop operator can also start its commercial offensive. They will run a first information meeting on Friday May 4th from 9.00 AM to 10.30 AM at the Novotel of Nice Arenas in order to present its new services offers. Among these, telephone services (portability of numbers and multi-site tariff offer), Internet access (wideband gateway from 100 Kbits/s to 80 Mbits/s) and data services (specialised inter-sites and inter-cities connections).
Jean-Raymond Vinciguerra, the councillor of the department and André Aschiéri's substitute MP, should be nominated as the head of the "gauche plurielle" list for the municipal elections of Grasse in 2001. This pole position in the left list was already run for by another PS councillor of department, Thierry Lautard…
A surprise in the designation of first RPR candidates in the Alpes-Maritimes : the choice of Bernard Brochand as head of the list for Cannes. Of course, Bernard Brochand was known as old friend of President of the Republic Jacques Chirac (the publicist had elaborated the communication campaigns for the presidential elections. But until now, he stayed out of the party. He subscribes to the Rassemblement pour la République only recently.
"Le soleil de Sophia Antipolis ne suffit pas à attirer les jeunes talents" : c'est le titre d'un article du journal Le Monde, version papier, sur la difficulté de recruter dans la première technopole européenne. Bruno Aubry, le correspondant régional du quotidien, a fait le point auprès d'Amadeus, de l'association de la Telecom Valley, de la Fondation Sophia Antipolis, de Sophianet.com, d'AG Consulting.
The international advertisement Festival of Cannes looks after its advertisement on the Internet. It has just launched a new version of its Internet website at the address canneslions.com. The fawn shades of the previous version which were completed with jungle noises were replaced by a more serene atmosphere, all in light powder blue.
