Martin Cid's Blog: Martin Cid Magazine, page 1051

It’s not all about the cricket – Lord’s lists top five unforgettable days out for summer 2016

Afternoon tea at Lord’s

The summer holidays are upon us and, to celebrate, Lord’s has recommended its top five days out at the Home of Cricket in 2016 – whatever the weather.

From families seeking a luxury day out to foodies looking to be wined and dined to ardent cricket fans wanting some action on the hallowed turf, Lord’s match day hospitality packages offer something for everyone.

1.Luxury Day with family and friends – Royal London One Day Cup Final

Enjoy the ultimate luxury day out with the family at the 2016 Royal London One Day Cup Final on Saturday 17th September.The Marylebone Suite package includes breakfast, a three-course buffet, complimentary beer, wine and soft drinks and afternoon tea as well as reserved seating in the Mound Stand to enjoy the match from, all at a price of £195 + VAT per person.

2.Watch a county match day in style

For the passionate cricket fan, Lord’s recommends a traditional county match day hospitality package starting at £110 per person or a luxury package at £145 per person. Perfect for a group of friends who enjoy county cricket or want to cheer their team on, the packages include a tour of Lord’s, tea and coffee on arrival, a scorecard and lunch in a Tavern Stand Hospitality Box.For those looking to splash out, a glass of Champagne, afternoon tea, souvenir gift and programme can be added to the package.

Between 2nd August and 22nd September 2016, supporters can choose from a range of top county cricket matches including Middlesex v Durham and Middlesex v Surrey.

3.Enjoy exquisite cuisine and behind the scenes action at Lord’s

For foodies and groups of all sizes, Lord’s recommends the Nursery Pavilion package starting at £329 + VAT per person. Visit Lord’s on 27th August for the second Royal London One-Day International and enjoy watching the players prepare for the match before taking your seats in the stands for the main event.

The package includes an intimate Q&A session with former international cricketers, a unique view of the players’ practice area, complimentary drinks all day including house Champagne, breakfast and a mouth-watering three-course lunch. This includes citrus poached barn chicken and canon of Oxfordshire lamb with pomegranate and sultana salsa, followed by a delicious afternoon tea. When you’re ready for some cricket action, you can view it all from your Lower Mound Stand or Lower Grand Stand seats.

4.Explore some of the most famous sporting sights at the Home of Cricket

Enjoy the ultimate Lord’s experience with a tour of the Home of Cricket. Perfect for all cricket enthusiasts, a tour includes a visit to the famous Honours Boards, a tour of the Long Room and MCC Museum where you can view the Ashes Urn, Prudential Trophy and Games Exhibition. Tours start between 11am and 2pm and special offers are available for group bookings with a minimum of 20 people.

5.Enjoy afternoon tea all year round at Lord’s Cricket Ground

All booked up this summer? Treat yourself to afternoon tea all year round and purchase vouchers for Lord’s festive themed afternoon tea, priced at £54 or £65 with Champagne, or traditional afternoon tea at £46 or with a glass of Champagne for £57. Enjoy a traditional cream tea with all the trimmings, including freshly baked scones with homemade jam and Cornish clotted cream, and a selection of finger sandwiches and dainties from Lord’s resident pâtissier. Enjoy all of this in the iconic Long Room with commanding views over the Ground’s outfield.

With a range of exciting world-class fixtures planned for 2017, including England v Ireland in May and England v South Africa in July, Lord’s expects its new hospitality packages to sell out fast when they are released this autumn.

OMD leads the M&M Global Awards 2016 Shortlist

M&M 2015 Award Winners

Award winners to be announced at the M&M Global Awards on Thursday 8 September 2016 at the Grosvenor House, London

M&M Global Awards in its 27th year announces today the highly-anticipated shortlist celebrating the best multi-market media campaigns from around the world.

The shortlist is headed by OMD with a total of 35 nominations across 16 categories. Following in second place is MediaCom while MEC is the third highest performing agency on the list.

Independent agencies present on the prestigious shortlist include companies such as Atomic 212 and LONDON Advertising while media owners include The Wall Street Journal and Yahoo! EMEA.

Brands that dominate the shortlist are Double Robotics with the campaign ‘Lucy The Robot’ which ran globally and Deutsche Telekom A.G. with ‘Sea Hero Quest’ which ran in Europe.

Seven new categories were introduced to this year’s awards. These include Best Multiplatform Campaign, Best Use of an Influencer, Innovative Use of a Publishing Platform, Best Creative Use of Technology, Best International Growth Strategy, B2C Campaign of the Year and The Talent Award reflecting on the ever-changing and multifaceted global media landscape.

The winners will be decided in a final round of judging by a prestigious jury that includes C-suite executives from Diageo, Hiscox, Jaguar Land Rover, MasterCard, Toyota and Unilever, as well as media owners, media agencies and independents.

The winners’ announcement will take place at the M&M Global Awards gala dinner event on the evening of 8 September 2016 at the Grosvenor House, London supported by NBCUniversal International Networks who is the Headline Partner of the 27th edition of the event for the second successive year.

To book your table, please contact Komla Ayewoh at komla.ayewoh@csquared.cc, tel: +44 (0) 20 7367 6464.

About M&M Global

M&M Global brings together and celebrates the world’s international media and marketing community, offering a unique hub for content, networking and intelligence. For more than 25 years, M&M Global has provided valuable commentary on the changes occurring in the media landscape, helping advertisers and their agency and media owner partners decipher what’s happening and what they should do next. In 2015, M&M Global relaunched with a new digital platform, bringing a wider range of text, video, audio and image-based content to our audience, including news, analysis, interviews, blogs and in-depth features. M&M Global is part of C Squared Networks Ltd, owner of the Festival of Media, emerge and Cream brands.

New Self-serving Drinks Mac Is A Festival Essential

Oasis Mighty Macs in action

It’s UK festival season, meaning one thing is guaranteed – rain, and lots of it. We’ve seen steady downpours already this summer and, with July and August festivals coming thick and fast, waterproofs will surely be an essential for all revelers.

Of course, rain and its chief side effect, mud, aren’t the only festival bugbears; losing your spot, your mates and missing out on the music because you’re in the drinks queue are top festival frustrations.

That’s why the clever folks at Oasis, the brand that likes to poke fun at modern day life, have invented a fashion item to address these festival woes. The ‘Mighty Mac’ contains a reservoir funnel on the hood to capture rainwater, an in-built tube system to channel water down the sleeve and a tap to turn on whenever you’re feeling a bit dehydrated. Simply add Oasis Mighty Drops (handily stored in the pocket) to the water, et voila, a delicious drink without the festival fallout.

Oasis Senior Brand Manager, Zara Gugen, said: “Let’s face it, the Mighty Mac is not going to do your festival fashion cred much good, but it’ll keep you dry on the outside and hydrated on the inside. And this is without sacrificing a second of the action or losing your friends for the rest of the festival. Given the colour, your friends aren’t likely to lose you either.”

For more information, visit facebook.com/OasisDrinks or follow @Oasis_Drinks.

TOP FESTIVAL BUGBEARS:

1 – Rain and the associated fallout (mud) – 61%

2 – The loos and queuing for the loos – 55%

3 – Dressing for the unpredictable weather – 22%

4 – Missing acts on other stages – 18%

5 – Losing friends – 15%

6 – Losing my place in the crowd – 13%

7 – Fetching drinks and missing out on the action – 12%

8 – Line up let downs – 11%

9 – Dehydration – 6%

Unnatural disasters drive demand for cloud-based recovery and backup, fueling iland’s 248 percent growth in 1H 2016

iland DR – Management Console

Renewed C-Suite focus on business continuity raises security, compliance and speed requirements for DRaaS and BaaS

LONDON – 26th July 2016 – In the face of cyber-attacks, infrastructure failures, human error and other threats, companies are now prioritising Business Continuity initiatives that have traditionally been an afterthought. As part of these efforts, teams increasingly focus on the security and compliance of cloud-based disaster recovery and backup. iland, an award-winning cloud provider, today announced this strategic shift towards ensuring secure, fast and compliant IT resilience has fueled its growth across the United States, EMEA and Singapore markets.

iland’s industry-recognised Disaster-Recovery-as-a-Service (DRaaS) and Backup-as-a-Service (BaaS) offerings have achieved a 248 percent revenue growth rate in the first half of 2016. The company also more than doubled its number of new DRaaS and BaaS customers across diverse industries ranging from healthcare to financial services to oil and gas.

Gartner Inc. recently named iland a Leader in the 2016 “Magic Quadrant for Disaster Recovery as a Service”* for its ability to execute and completeness of vision. According to the report, “Gartner estimates the DRaaS market will nearly triple in the next three years to a revenue point of $3.4 billion by 2019.”

“IT teams and the C-suite now see Business Continuity not just as insurance against rare natural disasters but as a thorough line of defense in the fight against malicious attack, ransomware and the ever-present risk of human error,” said Justin Giardina, CTO at iland. “But while executives accept IT resilience as an imperative, they also recognise it is yet another priority on IT’s exhausting to-do list. We alleviate that burden, partnering with industry leaders like Veeam and Zerto to give customers the fastest access to exceptional technology and a secure, reliable, compliant target location in the iland cloud.”

As business threats plague IT leadership, iland’s industry-leading DRaaS and BaaS offerings play a vital role in protecting business and evolving overall IT strategies. The rapid adoption rates directly correspond to key trends and best practices:

• Companies adopt Backup-as-a-Service as the natural first step to geographic diversification, sending secondary copies to a secure location with less than five minutes of setup time. For very little expense, companies can protect themselves from the crippling costs of data loss, compliance fines and even malicious threats like ransomware. These efficiencies spark rapid adoption, making BaaS the largest contributor to iland’s expanding customer base.

• DRaaS has become the standard when every second counts, enabling companies to minimise IT downtime that is often measured in the thousands of dollars per minute. Going beyond other DRaaS offerings, iland’s technology and expert support team ensure every step of disaster recovery planning, implementation and execution is seamless. Through the iland cloud console, customers can easily trigger failovers and failover tests to iland’s cloud on demand.

• Security requirements now lead the discussion, with customers rightly requiring their cloud targets to incorporate security and compliance features. iland has responded to this trend with integrated antivirus and malware protection, vulnerability scanning, storage and VM encryption, intrusion detection and prevention, file integrity monitoring and the on-demand reporting required for compliance audits.

• Backup and Disaster Recovery prove to be stepping stones to broader cloud migration, as the process of implementing and testing these services exposes customers to the ease of use, cost model, and benefits of cloud. iland helps customers identify their IT risk, technology requirements, and budgetary goals to deliver a complete business continuity plan, with accommodation for physical servers, co-location and complex networking. As a result, customers increasingly fail over to the iland cloud as part of a DR effort and choose to remain there, rather than failing back.

• In a disaster, companies report exceptional phone support is critical, as it provides the last piece of assurance a failover will succeed. iland support ensures on-boarding is smooth and failover tests are successful but also closely monitors any failovers triggered to the iland cloud to proactively verify success for each and every customer.

Industry recognition underscores strength of services and commitment to customers

Customers, industry analysts and partners around the globe continue to validate iland’s proven DRaaS offering. Recent accolades include:

• 2016 Zerto Cloud Service Provider Partner of the Year

• 2015 Veeam Service Provider of the Year, North America

• Cisco Powered Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS) designation under the Cisco® Cloud and Managed Services Advanced Certification

For more information on iland’s disaster recovery services, go to:

• iland Disaster-Recovery-as-a-Service

• Gartner’s 2016 Magic Quadrant for Disaster Recovery as a Service

Migrant Business Show Opens Doors at mi-HUB

mi-HUB Founder Rafael dos Santos

London has long been known for its diverse culture, so it’s appropriate that a new business show is taking place there tomorrow, designed to improve the network of London’s migrant community.

The Migrant Business Show is the brainchild of Brazilian property entrepreneur Rafael dos Santos who moved to London in 2002. Having left a good job with Microsoft, he moved to London with no contacts and worked his way up from working as a cleaner, a perfume demonstrator and then a landlord.

Rafael dos Santos said, “Recent research in Stratford, London showed that the three key issues that migrants face when starting or running a business is a lack of network, lack of knowledge and lack of funding.”

The hundreds of visitors who are expected to attend the Migrant Business show will have the opportunity to take part in workshops and attend talks from leading entrepreneurs and business people. More than 60 companies in different fields of work will be exhibiting at the event to demonstrate their work and services. Some of those exhibiting include;

Anita Bhardwaj: Founder of Anita B

Jonathan Partouche: Founder of Origone

Mirela Sula: CEO of Global Woman Magazine

Nicholas Devereaux: Area Sales Manager Federation of Small Businesses

Orsi Toth: Marketing Advisor for Get Set For Growth

Tamara Medina: Founder of Sapovalova

Victorine Piot: Founder of Piot Foundation

Yuliana Seymour: Director of My Outspace

Yuri Pires: Urban Vox

The event takes place at mi-HUB, the first UK business hub dedicated to supporting migrant entrepreneurs to start and grow successful businesses.

The venue, which has yet to be officially opened, will house 150 desks in a newly refurbished office in Batty Street, close to Aldgate East Station in Whitechapel, London.

The property has been secured by Rafael dos Santos who aims to foster business growth, knowledge and integration through relationships with entrepreneurs, education and integration with international migrant communities. The plan is for mi-HUB to provide nurturing for small business owners, who as well as having an office at a value for money price, will have the opportunity to learn how to accelerate their business growth.

The Migrant Business Show takes place tomorrow from 17:30 to 22:30 at 6 Batty Street, Whitechapel, London E1 1RH.

Links:

Migrant Business Show: http://migrantbusinessshow.com/

mi-HUB Website: http://www.mi-hub.com/

mi-HUB Twitter: https://twitter.com/mihublondon

mi-HUB Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mihublondon/?fref=ts

Rafael dos Santos website: http://www.rafaeldossantos.com/

Rafael dos Santos Twitter: https://twitter.com/ARafael_Santos

Event Brite ticket registration for free event: http://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/migrant-business-show-wwwmi-hu…

Rafael’s TEDx talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LwUnUiyh-8Q

TouchCommerce launches TouchAssist to provide enterprises with combination of Virtual Assistant and Live Customer interactions in digital channels

Intelligent automated conversations

** New product brings AI to customer service, integrating Nuance Nina virtual assistant technology with RightTouch customer engagement cloud plus extensive customer targeting and analytics capabilities **

TouchCommerce, the innovative leader in omni-channel customer engagement solutions for market leading brands, today announced its newest product, TouchAssist, which enables brands to offer intelligent automated conversations leading consumers to self-serve on digital channels. Leveraging virtual assistant technology from Nuance Communications(NASDAQ: NUAN), TouchAssist allows brands to create human-like dialogue with a “smart” virtual assistant or chat bot.

By harnessing the power of the TouchCommerce RightTouch® platform, TouchAssist offers brands and consumers the ability to have conversational, text-based interactions that blend automated and live assistance, seamlessly intertwined within a single web or mobile web interface with extensive targeting and analytics capabilities. When the virtual agent is not certain of what the answer should be, a live agent steps in to continue the conversation and provides the right answer.

Agent knowledge trains the virtual assistant engine to boost agent productivity and optimise the business Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) within the funnel. The resulting experience goes beyond traditional use cases of virtual assistants and live chat, serving the right digital interaction to the right visitor at the right time, while escalating from virtual assistant to live agent as needed.

“Intelligent bots are redefining digital commerce and customer care as enterprises seek to provide an engaging customer experience using natural language understanding, machine learning, and artificial intelligence,” said Bernard Louvat, president and CEO of TouchCommerce. “TouchAssist blends our powerful targeting, routing and agent-to-consumer communication technologies with the industry’s leading virtual assistant technology to help brands target, engage and converse with consumers in a more cost-effective way at the time that customers need assistance with their self-service experience.

Continues Bernard Louvat: “The power of TouchAssist resides in the fact that the agent and robot collaborate, improving knowledge and accuracy over time. This collaboration will pave the way to a future with fully autonomous chat bots and transform the role of chat agents into that of a Virtual Assistant Trainer. The RightTouch platform is the perfect technology environment to make that happen successfully for brands and consumers.”

Many believe that identifying the optimal intersection of virtual and human-powered customer service technologies will be an industry game-changer:

“‘Human interactions are declining with the rise of digital channels, and will become a rarity and more valuable,'” said Ed Thompson, vice president and distinguished analyst from Gartner, at the recent Gartner Customer Strategies & Technologies Summit 2016 in London.1 “‘Therefore, if you can apply human interaction at a defining moment for a customer, it will have a far greater impact.'”

With its advanced targeting capabilities, virtual assistant to live chat contextual transfer, unified reporting for all types of interactions, as well as a robust core platform that leverages the industry’s leading virtual assistant technology, TouchCommerce is addressing this opportunity with an offering that is more sophisticated than what is on the market today. TouchAssist is enterprise-ready, PCI-compliant and fluent in more than 20 languages. A demo is available at www.touchcommerce.com/touchassist.

“TouchCommerce and Nuance will drive a new era in customer service, one where artificial intelligence teams with agents to deliver service that consumers love and prefer – because it is fast, accurate and convenient,” said Robert Weideman, EVP and general manager for Nuance Enterprise. “Enterprises prefer this as well, because the combination of self-service and assisted service eliminates the historical trade-off between automation and customer experience. As a result, enterprises will reduce the costs associated with customer service while elevating customer satisfaction and net promoter scores.”

For further information regarding TouchCommerce, visit www.touchcommerce.com

1 in 10 Londoners want a second EU referendum

Map of UK Bregret

“1 in 10 Londoners have signed an online petition calling for a second EU referendum, analysis by digital marketing agencyJellyfish has revealed.”

One month on from the referendum vote, more than four million people have signed the petition, meaning the issue will be debated in Westminster Hall on 5 September.

By analysing data from the official Parliament petitions website, Jellyfish was able to calculate the percentage of the population in each constituency that signed the petition, and an interactive map was created showing which parts of the UK show the most ‘Bregret’.

You can see the map online here

The petition is most popular in major cities in the South of England – unsurprising considering the strong support for ‘remain’ in these locations.

Here are the towns and cities where the second referendum petition was most and least popular:

Most popular:

1. Brighton and Hove – 14.6%

2. Oxford – 12.9%

3. Bristol – 11%

4. London – 10.3%

5. Manchester – 9.5%

Least popular:

1. Doncaster – 2.25%

2. West Bromwich – 2.39%

3. Stoke – 2.44%

4. Dudley – 2.45%

5. Blackpool – 2.53%

Hornsey and Wood Green in London was the constituency with the most signatures by population, with 18.59% of constituents signing the petition.

Catherine West, MP for Hornsey & Wood Green who campaigned strongly to remain, said:

“I still believe that the UK is stronger and more secure in the EU, and I will continue to stand with the people of Hornsey and Wood Green on this issue by voting against invoking Article 50 when a vote is held in parliament.

“Thousands of people have already contacted me about the call for a second referendum and over 3 million people have signed a national petition, which means it will be considered for a Parliamentary debate. I look forward to this debate and the opportunity to highlight the implications of this referendum for the country and for our communities. I hope its conclusions can be worked into Labour’s next manifesto.”

Support in other parts of the UK was not as strong. While 30% of Scots voted to remain in the EU, only 3.5% have signed the petition for a second referendum.

Likewise, in Northern Ireland, while 25% of the population voted to remain, only 3.8% of the population signed the petition.

A deeper look into the data shows that the majority (54%) of signatures came from people residing in Conservative controlled constituencies. Labour came in second with 37% of signatures coming from their constituents.

Note: Map and chart are interactive – embed codes available on request.

Two British Models Get Ready For Rio Olympics

Olympic Windsurfer Bryony Shaw

Two top athletes from a leading London-based model agency will be unavailable this summer because they’ve both been selected to compete in the Olympics.

Dressage champion, Charlotte Dujardin OBE, 31 and Windsurfer Bryony Shaw, 33 are both preparing for the Rio Olympics that starts on August 5 2016.

Mike Illes, Director at MOT Models said, “We’re thrilled for Charlotte and Bryony and we wish them the very best at the world’s most competitive sporting event. I’m disappointed for cyclist Dani King who just missed out, especially given her form this year and her previous successes at both Olympic and World Championship.”

MOT Models recently set up a sports personality division, bringing some of the UK’s most popular sporting individuals to the renowned agency.

Another sportsman who has turned to modelling is Hull born and bred boxer Luke Campbell, 28, who won an Olympic gold medal at London 2012, and has since carved a successful career in both amateur and, since 2013, professional boxing. Luke and his young family signed up to MOT Models and are available for family shoots. Other stars include rugby players Mike Phillips, Eli Walker, Tim Visser and Rhys Webb plus swimmer Adam Walker and tennis player James Ward.

Mike Illes added, “In spite of the volatile market place, business is relatively buoyant and it’s helped that we’ve got such a broad range of talent on our books. The industry is competitive, but a walk in the park compared to competing in the Olympics. I have so much admiration for Charlotte and Bryony and wish them great sporting success at the world’s most important games.”

As part of their Sports Division, MOT Models has produced an eBook featuring Olympic personalities and sporting stars. The eBook consists of stunning images and interesting facts about the athletes working with the agency. You can view the eBook here.

Links

MOT Models website: http://www.motmodel.com/

eBook: http://fr.zone-secure.net/20507/209523/

Charlotte Dujardin OBE website: http://www.charlottedujardin.co.uk/

Bryony Shaw website: http://bryonyshaw.co.uk/

Luke Campbell: http://www.lukecampbellofficial.co.uk/

JKS Group announce new partnership with breast cancer charity as this years preferred charity

Nanny G fundraising for breast cancer

Pink tipper truck to promote breast cancer research

Abingdon, 21st July 2016: Already a familiar sight on the roads of Essex and London, JKS Group have taken delivery of the newest member of their fleet. The pink livery on their new Scania Tipper immediately sets it apart from anything else on the road and will be sure to make heads turn.

Driven by Sarah, one of JKS’s most experienced drivers who recently lost her grandmother to breast cancer, the decision was taken to support her in her bid to raise funds for [Against Breast

Cancer|http://www.againstbreastcancer.org.uk] by the Managing Director, Cancer who suggested the colour scheme.

Managing Director, Jeremy Suttling said “Our new pink tipper joins our fleet of 50 vehicles and demonstrates our commitment, not just to providing the best service to our customers, but also to acknowledge our corporate social responsibility which was one of the key reasons behind our decision to create it. We thought that a tipper was such a great advertisement, bearing in mind the number of miles it covers each year on the local road network and for such a worthwhile cause. “We gave support to a member of staff who lost someone very special to her.”

Corporate Partnerships Manager for Against Breast Cancer, Kelly Gibson said “We’re delighted to have the support of JKS Group, together we want ‘to get the job done’ and create a future free from breast cancer.”

The pink tipper, known as Nanny G, will be appearing at community events throughout Essex this summer and visitors will be encouraged to contribute to Sarah’s fundraising for Against Breast Cancer.

As members of the CLOCS campaign to protect vulnerable road users, the low emission Scania Tipper is fitted with the latest road safety systems including cameras and audio warnings improve the driver’s ability to see and be seen and by pedestrians, cyclists and other motorists even on the busiest of streets.

_______________________________________________________________________________

Against Breast Cancer

Against Breast Cancer is a charity dedicated to funding ground-breaking research to increase survival after a breast cancer diagnosis by focusing on secondary spread, the main cause of breast-cancer related deaths.

We fund research that addresses critical gaps in scientific resources and knowledge to help doctors diagnose and treat secondary breast cancer faster and more effectively, and to understand factors that may increase or reduce the risk of secondary spread so that people can make informed diet and lifestyle choices.

We have directly funded the collection and storage of over 23,000 blood and urine samples, provided annually by over 3,000 women with breast cancer from

56 hospitals across the UK in our DietCompLyf Study, the largest national study of its kind. Researchers can determine differences between women who develop secondary breast cancer and those who do not by studying this collection of biological samples and dietary and lifestyle information provided at the same time.

For more information about [Against Breast

Cancer|http://www.againstbreastcancer.org.uk] please see our website

Game of Thrones begins production on season seven this summer

EMMY®– AND GOLDEN GLOBE-WINNING HBO SERIES GAME OF THRONES TO BEGIN PRODUCTION ON SEASON SEVEN THIS SUMMER

LOS ANGELES, July 18, 2016 – The Emmy®– and Golden Globe-winning series GAME OF THRONES will begin shooting its next season later this summer, it was announced today by Casey Bloys, president, HBO programming. Production of the seven-episode seventh season will be based in Northern Ireland, while additional portions will be filmed in Spain and Iceland, with debut slated for summer 2017 on HBO.

“Now that winter has arrived on GAME OF THRONES, executive producers David Benioff and D.B. Weiss felt that the storylines of the next season would be better served by starting production a little later than usual, when the weather is changing,” said Bloys. “Instead of the show’s traditional spring debut, we’re moving the debut to summer to accommodate the shooting schedule.”

Season seven directors will include Mark Mylod, Jeremy Podeswa, Matt Shakman and Alan Taylor.

Locations for shooting in Spain will include Sevilla, Caceres, Almodovar del Rio, Santiponce, Zumaia and Bermeo.

Last week, GAME OF THRONES received 23 Primetime Emmy® nominations, the most of any nominee for the third year in a row. This year’s nominations include Outstanding Drama Series, 2 for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series (Peter Dinklage, Kit Harington), 3 for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series (Emilia Clarke, Lena Headey, Maisie Williams), Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series (Max von Sydow), 2 for Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series (Miguel Sapochnik, Jack Bender) and Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series (David Benioff and D.B. Weiss).

Season seven credits: The executive producers of GAME OF THRONES are David Benioff, D.B. Weiss, Carolyn Strauss, Frank Doelger and Bernadette Caulfield; co-executive producers, Guymon Casady, Vince Gerardis, George R.R. Martin and Bryan Cogman; producers, Chris Newman, Greg Spence and Lisa McAtackney.