Tom McGovern (CEO of Snap) in front of The Monte Carlo Casino, Monaco

Ahhh Monaco Cote d”Azur, Lamborghinis, Tuxedos, Monte Carlo, James Bond. When I told folks that I was attending the Monaco Media Forum the image in their minds was consistently that of the fabled playground of the rich and famous. It was my first visit and I have to say that the place did not disappoint, I saw yachts in the harbor with staterooms the size of my entire house NOT including heliports on top. Our host was the His Serene Highness the Prince of Monaco.

But, I digress, I was actually there for the first ever Monaco Media Forum. The same group that puts on the well-known Davos World Economic Forum conference, had arranged this diverse gathering of “old media” heads, internet start-ups, public policy gurus and intelligencia. The topics explored ranged from ‘the social impact of technology’ to ‘the future of newspapers’ and a peppering of demos from some of our fellow upstarts. I joined two panels to discuss new economic models for media (those who bought advertising our “cost per action” model, those who sell media were perplexed how it will transcend sponsored search) and a panel on Internet Search (aka lets discuss Google yet again). It was a great first showing of Snap for the conference and like most of the sessions really served as a catalyst for the real interesting hallway chatter and impromptu meetings.

A hat tip to Publicis, the French advertising giant, who was the organizer of the event and Wired Magazine’s Spencer Reiss the moderator who had a tough job of keeping the proceedings in check.

Danny Schecther has a good blow by blow here.

Tom