Plus de 70 entreprises et 3.000 étudiants attendus le 8 mars au Sophia Country Club de Sophia Antipolis pour la 3ème édition d'une manifestation devenue la plus importante de PACA.

There is no “three stars” left on the French Riviera. The Louis XV, owned by Alain Ducasse in Monaco, the only establishment of the Riviera ranking at the top, lost a star in the edition 2001 of the Guide Michelin (it had already lost its third star in 1997 to have it back thereafter). Nevertheless, Alain Ducasse was granted three stars for its new Parisian restaurant at the Plaza Athénée.

The departure of Chritopher J.Corbett, marketing director of the ETSI (European Telecommunications Standards Institute) in Sophia Antipolis didn’t escape notice in the Telecom Valley of the French Riviera. Christopher J. Corbett, who was also in charge of the communication direction of the Institute, knew on these last years how to get connections with all the high tech circles of the French Riviera. He left Sophia for Seattle in the United States where he is now working for Microsoft since mid-February, in charge of the partnership strategy of the software’s American giant.

Quatre dimanche de suite aux urnes pour les électeurs de Cannes, Mandelieu et Théoule. Ils auront à voter comme tous les Français pour les municipales, les 11 et 19 mars, mais auront encore à passer par l'isoloir les deux dimanches suivants (les 25 mars et 1er avril) pour la législative partielle qui a été organisée suite au décès de Louise Moreau (UDF), députée de la 8ème circonscription. Les dépots de candidatures devront se faire entre le lundi 26 février et le 4 mars à minuit.

Il n'y a plus de trois étoiles sur la Côte d'Azur. Le Louis XV, d'Alain Ducasse à Monaco, le seul établissement azuréen dans le plus haut du tableau, a perdu une étoile dans l'édition 2001 du Guide Michelin (il avait déjà perdu sa troisième étoile en 1997 pour la retrouver par la suite). Alain Ducasse, néanmoins s'est vu attribuer trois étoiles pour son nouveau restaurant parisien au Plaza Athénée.

Said as to be in the red, the last result of the SFCMC (Société Fermière du Casino Municipal de Cannes which belong to the Lucien Barrière group) finally revealed as positive. The figures of the fiscal period, which ended on October 31st 2000, have been presented during the week and they reveal a net result of 0.5 million euros (3.6 million francs) for a turnover of 78 million euros (an increase of 23%).Listed on the stock exchange, the SFCMC, which gather together the Majestic and Gray d'Albion hotels around the Croisette casino lost 0.5 million euros last year.

Created this year by the Costa Croisières company, the 'Rendez-Vous de Nice' (the appointments of Nice) have allowed the routing of 14.550 passengers from the Nice airport to Savone and Genoa by bus in order to board a cruise ship. Like Air France with the 'Rendez-Vous Lyonnais' (the appointments of Lyon), Costa has labelled the 'Rendz-Vous de Nice'. In /www.tourmag.com">Tourmag.comthey deal with this new international tourist offer which is associating the French Riviera with the Liguria.

The subsidiary of the group Vivendi announced during the 3GSM of Cannes its intention to establish a UMTS network before summer in the principality. The operator selected the providers Siemens and Nec.

After a test period, the textile group now leans everyday on the Internet market.A success for Etexx which is, for the moment, testing the following phase : the electronic hub.

The Chamber of Commerce and Industry Nice Côte d'Azur is strengthening its e-business cell. So, Dominique Vian, who was consultant at PricewaterhouseCoopers, specialised in the organisation of information systems, has joined the Chamber of Commerce recently. His role will be help the CCI members to define their e-business strategy. 'For the first time in the economic history,explains Dominique Vian, a new technology doesn't only improve the production process. The NICT (the New Information and Communication Technologies) have also become a tool for the company development.

A good example of an e-business site dedicated to the haute-couture noticed by Toutsurlacom.com: the second version of the /www.chanel.com">www.chanel.comsite launched early November. The B2L agency, which created it, had had to put the Chanel spirit on Internet. Some refined graphics, a style elegance, a well organized navigation with four topics (fashion, fragrance, makeup, skin care), some flash animations, a very large panorama on the latest collections with a zoom possibility for each picture, a quick access : we are about to smell the famous brand N°5 around the pictures.

A former member of Digital, Guy Gensollen, who was at the head of the regional direction of Completel, has been upgraded to vice-president of Completel France. His sphere of action has spread to all French regions, excluding Paris, where the telecommunication operator is involved in plans of creation of fiber-optic networks (Toulouse, Grenoble, Lyon, etc). So, another general manager has been nominated at the beginning of the year : Patrick Jones, 44, a former of cabled networks who entered Completel a few month ago.

Une présentation du programme IST par Christine Montagut, le point de contact national, et une présentation du prix IST 2002 par son organisateur, Alain Mongon, aura lieu à 16h30, lundi 26 février dans les locaux de la SAEM, place Bermont à Sophia Antipolis.

“Imagina, which is planned to be organized from February 2002, will be the open window for the medium term future.”

Worldres, a Californian company of on-line hotel booking for the general public, is settling its southern Europe direction in Sophia. The northern Europe direction remains in London. Worldres which is hiring 200 people all over the world and which is dealing with the booking of some 12.000 hotels, intends to attack the market of the French Riviera. For the moment, seven people are working in Sophia under the direction of Michel Jannet, a staff which should be up to twenty by the end of the year.

The European leader of Internet Appliances servers generated its sales during the last quarter of 2000 and expects a turnover of 42 million euros for 2001.

A new boss for Liberty Surf, the owner of the start-up from Sophia Antipolis among others. As the founder president Pierre Besnainou dismissed after the company has been taken over by the Internet access provider Tiscali, the Liberty Surf general manager Rafi Kouyoumdjian, 39, is upgraded to president. He works in the group since October 2000. his mission will be 'to ensure the operational reconciliation between the different entities of the Tiscali group in France'.

Of course, Amadeus has kept the option of not selling directly to the ultimate consumer, but to serve the travel professionals by putting distribution and marketing tools at their disposal. Nevertheless, as a big part of the company's research and development is located on the research park, they want to use the Net assets.

Nothing pornographic in the /www.barbara-beauxseins.com"> barbara-beauxseins.comsite which has just opened. This even an example of 'click and mortar strategy, that is to say the alliances between the new economy and the traditional one. Actually, this is a site which has just been created by the Barbara garments brand which is now 75 years old.

La filiale du groupe Vivendi a annoncé au 3GSM de Cannes son intention d'installer un réseau UMTS avant l'été dans la Principauté. L'opérateur a retenu Siemens et Nec comme fournisseurs.