How can digital arts organisations bring in a business mindset while maintaining artistic integrity as major producers of digital art? DI/S – Digital Inter/Section, a multiyear project supported by Creative Europe, is releasing four case studies of new business models for digital arts organisations and the creative sector. Some of the key finds include a strong audience perspective and that funding through a diversification of income streams, independent of public or private funding, creates stability and sustainability. First case study: CHRONIQUES 2024 in France, and its Market of Digital Imagination Fair (MIN).
This article is published as part of a paid partnership.
Market of Digital Imagination Fair (MIN)
The Market of Digital Imagination Fair (MIN) is an event for professionals in the cultural and creative industries focused on new technologies and digital creation.
The marketplace deepens the connection between art and technology, foster R&D, and cultivate innovative partnerships. Building on the Biennial of Digital Imaginaries, an artistic event, the Market of Digital Imagination Fair (MIN) capitalises on the organisations’s ability to break down barriers and bring different economic sectors together. The marketplace as a model encourages this to continue and allows for an event-based and experiential approach to the development of new B2B services. Chroniques is hybridising its revenue streams by generating B2B revenue and by developing a customer-centric approach.
A key takeaway from this case study is that the development of the Market of Digital Imagination Fair (MIN) supports Chroniques’s advocacy to convince public decision-makers of its cross-sectoral role, in particular by mobilising public funds earmarked for economic growth, not only for the cultural sector (our report).

CHRONIQUES (ZINC)
An artistic event extension built on our ability to break down barriers and bring different economic sectors together
CHRONIQUES (ZINC) is a cultural and artistic organisation which :
- Promote artistic creation that explores technological capabilities and the ways they transform our everyday lives and our societies (read our article) ;
- Create opportunities for the public to step inside these compelling digital imaginary worlds ;
- Bring industry professionals together for networking and mutual support around the production, distribution and recognition of digital and hybrid arts.
Digital cultures as CHRONIQUES have developed around the very idea of networks: the Internet, peer-to-peer, rhizomatic organisations, reticular thinking. So networks and collaboration are second nature to us. But how do we monetise this value proposition and the cross-sector collaboration that we can initiate? Avoiding becoming a consultancy agency, while maintaining our methods of intervention and support for the artistic sector?
The idea of a market, proposed at the opening of our main artistic event – the Biennale – allows us to maintain an event-based and experiential approach to the development of new B-to-B services.
The main new features of the market are:
- Formalisation and estimation of the prices of the value/services offered: stands for exhibitors, accreditations, other forms of visibility for clients, etc.
- Moving from a beneficiary-based approach to a customer-based approach (change in professional culture)
- Marketing the service offer (editorial change and non-adapted communication channels)

The production of our market is linked to two needs:
- Support our advocacy and continue to convince public decision-makers of the cross-sectoral role of CHRONIQUES (strengthening the project’s core economic model), in particular by mobilising public funds earmarked for the economic (and not only the cultural) sector.
- Hybridise our revenue streams by generating BtoB revenue and developing a customer- centric approach.
Since the launch of the Biennale in 2018, we’ve been nurturing and developing this market. It is the result of the experience of several previous events:
- In 2018, with the organisation of the Marché International des Arts Numériques (MIAN), with our Quebec partner Elektra, and conferences on key themes at The Camp (Organisation dedicated to innovation process – Aix en Provence).
- In 2020, despite Covid, with a fully digital event with MIAN and Lives Online.
- In 2022, by building more bridges with industry and business by producing the Immersive Experiences Show Room with French Tech Aix- Marseille (local Tech network).
For 2024, the aim is to develop our capacity to monetise our formats: Attendance at conferences (ticketing), pitches (visibility of participants), networking. We are also launching a new format: a professional exhibition with the sale of stands and exhibition space.
At higher prices compared to the cultural sector, according to the standards applied in the more traditional economic or audiovisual sectors.
This requires :
- Reaching new target groups that are economically or professionally able to pay “high” prices.
- Changing the purchasing behaviour of our usual target audiences (cultural sector and digital arts) by convincing them of the added value of our proposal.
- Reaching a critical mass of participants to make the market succeed despite pricing barriers.

Key partners supporting the project
- La Friche la Belle de Mai – Marseille -Hosting and production site
ZINC’s historic partner, key to the success of the event thanks to the logistical possibilities offered on site, the link with the artistic part (Biennale) and a very competitive rental price compared to the market. - Institut Français – Paris – Internationalisation of the event
The Institut Français, through its Focus Numérique programme, allows us to welcome a large number of international experts, particularly as speakers (at no extra cost). For the attractiveness of the event and its competitive differentiation, this is extremely important. - HACNUM – France – Sector recognition and communication
Created in 2020, HACNUM – the National Network for Hybrid Arts and Digital Cultures – brings together more than 400 stakeholders in the sector in France. It is a key partner in promoting the event and marketing accreditation, particularly outside our region. - Local public partners: the cities of Marseilles, Métropole Aix-Marseille Provence and the region PACA.
Public funding/support from the economy and attractiveness departments (aim to diversifying public resources, not only from cultural department).
Competition and uniqueness
The positioning of the Market of Digital Imagination Fair is characterised above all by its desire to break down barriers between aesthetics, technologies and economic sectors. We believe that this approach is structuring for professionals involved in immersive and hybrid creation and production and complements existing reference events as New Images Festival; SVSN meetings; NUMIX LAB; Venice Immersive; Mutek Immersive. A broader market, focusing on other players and forms of creation in addition to the immersive field(XR),opens up new perspectives and business opportunities and broadens the scope of the market.
We are particularly inspired by markets in the audio visual sector, such as the Annecy International Animation Film Market and the Cannes Film Festival Market and by SXSW (Austin) for its multidisciplinary dynamism and the intersection of art, technology and industry.

Strategic approach
Designing the basics of the business model, initial budget projections, defining objectives and strategic approaches, defining key partners and contributions.
Based on the structuring of the business model, three areas of work were to be implemented:
- The institutional relationship with the public funders identified (DRAC, Ville de Marseille, Métropole Aix Marseille Provence)
- A B-to-B relationship with professional organisations that are prescribers and/or potential customers (accreditations and stands)
- The production of content and a communication strategy for B-to-C sales (accreditations).
Services definition and Pricing • April/June 2024:
Roundtables on specific topics and day-to-day issues – current industry issues, discovery of local ecosystems, examples of collaboration, etc.
Conferences and keynotes on forward-looking issues by recognised experts, including international delegations.
Masterclasses and workshops: discover new technologies, software and techniques.
Pitch : flagship projects supported by international delegations and open to co-productions + national projects.
Workshops or talks organised by institutional structures or others wishing to promote themselves
Demos and experiments proposed by studios or creative companies in a non-equipped formula (provision of a defined area).
Market + Speed meetings between professionals, open or planned according to present internationals delegations and the programme
A study of the offers of 3 events similar in their conception and proposals helped us to build our price offer.
Sustainability
For this first edition, where work on the commercial and strategic foundations of the event was substantial, it was not possible to define a strategy on the challenges of environmental sustainability.
Nevertheless, the challenges of economic restraint imposed by a limited budget and our DNA of collaboration have led us to :
- To combine speakers from the artistic (Biennale) and professional (Market) parts of the event, thus reducing the economic and environmental impact of international transport.
- Following the same logic, to plan the programme and the choice of speakers in collaboration with the Focus Institut Français and the European Realities in Transition project.
- Re-use the equipment and scenographic elements of our host partner, the Friche la Belle de Mai.
- Favour a digital approach to communication, in particular via swap cards, without printing on site (badges, programme, etc.).

Inviting artists from the Biennial and especially the partnership with the Realities in Transition EU project – a project that defends and promotes in XR creation – has allowed us to have a diversity of speakers and to explore these issues in depth.
In the light of this 1st edition experience and in anticipation of the strategy to be developed for the next edition around the challenge of sustainability, we would like to share some key considerations :
- Stakeholder equity and fair economic impact distribution.
- Use of renewable materials or energy sources (with a lowtech approach which may be a strong event positioning).
- Continue to promote and highlight diversity and inclusion in the choice of our speakers.
Lessons learned
To know about the lessons learned, and a complete case study about CHRONIQUES, download it on DI/S – Digital Inter/Section’s website.
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