Was welcomed by a lovely young girl from the organizers (I couldn’t quite get her name) and by Pascale Duvignau the pretty petite lady in the picture, from the Rallye des Gazelles on my arrival in Paris. Pascale drove Rena Golden, head of CNN International and me to Deauville, and although I nodded off during the two hours, and I speak no French and understand un petit peu, I learned that she’s quite the feminist, and is also working with women who are facing domestic violence – according to her, a lot of them, and many just keep silent from shame about it. No different in the Western world as in ours!
Had a good conversation with Rena too, about CNN’s online efforts, about their tie-up with Joost, and some of her plans to bring in more user-generated content into their web efforts. In an interview with indiantelevision earlier this year, she shares more on their plans. Met some of her colleagues when we got to the hotel, and they were talking of strategies for YouTube and mobile interventions too. It was nice talking to a bunch of journalists who seemed to acknowledge new media, and the need to go where the readers/viewers are. I shared with them some of what we are doing at Mosoci too.
They also told me that they had a booth at the Womens-Forum, where you could get the handbook and updates on the forum and CNN news, weather etc. via bluetooth on your mobile phone.
Reached Deauville and we realised our hotel wasn’t the Royal Barriere but Normandy Barriere – which is much nicer really. Its quite a plush hotel, and I feel really spoiled here – champagne and chocolate treats to welcome me, and today when I got back to the room, I got hampers of pink champagne and Helena Rubinstein products – sent to the womens-forum delegates! This is a big mainstream sort of conference – haven’t attended one of those for ages 
Deauville is a lovely town, quite touristy and full of expensive boutiques – am told its the Parisians weekend getaway – it is nice to stand by the sea during our breaks although you wouldn’t dream of going for a swim in it.
