This week, three of Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union’s (ABU) three key initiatives – RadioAsia 2018 Conference, the Europe-Asia Media 2020 dialogue and the Radio Song Festival celebrating the diversity of the Union’s membership, will be held in Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan.
The events, to be held from July 10 to 12, are being organised in Central Asia for the first time.
Titled “Radio – Unity and Diversity”, this year’s RadioAsia Conference will address in very practical ways some of the greatest challenges facing broadcasters in the Second Digital Age. It will bring together radio, technology and new media industry professionals from across the region and around the world to help chart paths through an increasingly complex media landscape, using examples that actually work in everyday broadcasting.
On July 10, there will be two pre- conference worskshops.
The first one is titled ‘Zero to Hero – Building your station from the Ground Up’ and will be facilitated by Paul Amos, Managing Director, Xtra Insights and Ronnie Stanton, Ronnie Stanton Media.
‘Making Great Radio for Children and Young People, Across Multiplatforms’ is the second pre-conference workshop where Children’s and Educational content expert Karen Merkel will share the building blocks needed to create, broadcast and/or distribute Kids’ Radio that is affordable and effective. Award Winning drama and documentary producer Akim Mogaji will demonstrate how to create and deliver compelling and immersive radio content across all media platforms.
On July 11, Radio Asia Conference will open with a session called ‘Knowing our audiences’. This session examines how one can objectively assess audiences – especially all the diverse elements – using traditional as well as modern techniques and tools, such as audience research, focus groups, audience interactions, new media and social media. It will be moderated by Paul Amos of Xtra Insights and panellists include Yerlan Karin, Chairman, KTRK Kazakhstan, Steve Ahern, Managing Director, Ahern Media & Training, Australia, Fayyaz Sheheryar, Director General, All India Radio, India, Drew McDaniel, Professor, Director, School of Media Arts, Ohio University, USA and Tshering Wangchuk, CEO, BBSC Bhutan.
The second session ‘Making Programs For Everyone’ will discuss how to use both multiple platform and single platform program making methods to deliver content to diverse audiences. Shanthi Bhagirathan, MBC Sri Lanka is the moderator and the panelists include Madi Manatbek, Director, Kazakh Radiolary Wim Moortgat, VTR (Belgium), Wolfram Tech, Senior Consultant & Partner, BCI Group, Germany and James Ross, Lightning International.
This will be followed by a Masterclass titled ‘50 Shades of Great- 50 Things To Do That Will Make Your Station Better Tomorrow’. Presenter Ronnie Stanton will share successful ideas along with audio and video examples from around the world, ranging from programming to promotions.
The third session of the day is titled ‘The Future Here And Now’. Moderated by Steve Ahern and featuring panelists from the day’s speakers and audience, this is an interactive overview of where we are now in serving diverse audiences and unifying people, how we can better understand our listeners, viewers and new media users, what challenges face broadcasters at the end of the second decade of the new millennium and what help we can expect technologies, methodologies and advances in other fields of human life.
The conference will be followed by 5th ABU Song Festival 2018 – a musical showcase from across Asia and the Pacific, embracing and recognising the diverse musical talents of young, unsigned artists in the region.