Cultural Season at ADU

• Noura Al Kaabi: Media to witness major shifts domestically and regionally
• Twofour54 will bridge the communication gap between the east and the west

Kylie McKenzie, the Marketing Manager at Aim, presented Noura Al Kaabi, the Head of Tawasol, during a seminar at ADU. In attendance were H.E. Ali Saeed Bin Harmal Al Dhaheri, the ADU Chairman of the Executive Board, Dr. Nabil Ibrahim, the ADU Chancellor, College Deans and a number of students.

During the seminar, which was organized by ADU under the theme of “The Future of our Youth in the Media Sector”, Ms. Al Kaabi explained that the media sector in Abu Dhabi, the UAE, and the region will witness major shifts in terms of its content and performance. This needs to happen in order to allow it to face the challenges of the 21st century. Change in the domestic and international media is of the utmost importance since the media sector suffers from major drawbacks and problems related to stereotyping between the Eastern and Western media in issues related to culture and values without focusing on the common grounds between the two cultures. Several factors have limited the media landscape in the past, Factors such as the shortage of creative, innovative, and local skills, inadequate financing for new ideas and start-ups, lack of government support for the media sector, an outdated regulatory framework, and limited choice. Even with the existence of local talents, there is no place which actually nurtures and develops these talents. Therefore, most of the talented people in the region travel to the west in order to achieve their dreams and ambitions and that is why it is important to build a local establishment which is able to achieve the ambitions of young Arab talent.

The Twofour54 project in Abu Dhabi represents such a communication bridge between Eastern and Western cultures as well as all other cultures around the world. This is achieved by providing an ideal media environment and creative partnerships with prestigious international media agencies. As a result, the Twofour54 project was not affected adversely by the current global financial crisis due to the signing of contracts and commitments with its partners prior to the crisis. The nature of work in the media sector was not badly influenced regionally or internationally by the financial crisis. Twofour54 is an integrated, state-of-the-art environment that supports and inspires media content creators to flourish in the Arab world, and provides a cohesive infrastructure for content creation companies and individuals in the film, broadcast, digital, gaming, publishing and music industries. It also provides a collaborative and supportive campus environment as well as stimulating creative and professional partnerships. With some of the world’s major media content creation companies already onboard, Twofour54 is now open for business.

Twofour54 aims to Complement Abu Dhabi’s art and cultural drive by documenting Abu Dhabi’s cultural projects such as the Sheikh Zayed National Museum, Louvre Abu Dhabi, Guggenheim Abu Dhabi, the Maritime Museum and the Performing Arts Centre. Twofour54 aims to complement this vision through Arabic content. i.e.: a cultural documentary of Abu Dhabi within the UAE. Rich cultural cities, around the world, always have a well renowned media city to reflect its culture; cities such as the British Media City and Tokyo Media City. This is an extremely important part of achieving the cultural drive that lies in creating a thriving international media industry which, to be successful, needs to be local at the same time.

In addition to developing and diversifying the national economy, generating employment and creative content in all forms, Al Kaabi noted that the main ambition of Twofour54 is to lead change, to improve quality and grow the media sector in the Arab world by launching major initiatives that will encourage, stimulate and support Arabic content creation by Arabs in the Arab world, embracing films, television and music through animation, digital media and art. It also wants to provide a collaborative campus where all types of media companies can work together and see Abu Dhabi becoming a centre and catalyst for content creation and culture throughout the Middle East region and beyond.

Al Kaabi mentioned that Twofour54 aspires to create a home-grown, sustainable source of innovative thinking and media content, pushing boundaries across the region and resonating around the world. Twofour54 is not just about launching a business; but it’s actually trying to create an industry and an ecosystem for true Arabic content creation by the people and for the people in the Arab region. The market opportunity is substantial by any measure, but the industry needs more than just a location – it needs a cohesive environment that supports education, investment, collaboration and creative partnerships. Twofour54 places media right at the heart of the Arab world and offers the tools and infrastructure for driving international-standard quality and success

The pan-Arab world today represents an audience of 325 million people and a large proportion of that population is under the age of 25. Yet there is a limited amount of content, of local origin, when compared to the United States, which has a similar audience size, but which boasts some of the world’s largest content creation companies and enormous output. Therefore the Arab world presents an enormous, but relatively unexploited, opportunity in terms of locally created content and Twofour54 would like to change that.

Twofour 54 relies on four pillars to provide the ideal environment for talents. These pillars are embodied in the learning academy (Tadrrrb), innovation and support (Ibtikar), state-of-the-art production facilities (Intaj), and your-one-stop shop (Tawasol).

The training academy (Tadreeb) will be the region’s premier vocational training academy, inviting media and entertainment professionals to up-skill and re-skill across a comprehensive range of media disciplines. Tadreeb is a dynamic partnership between Twofour54 and global media players such as the BBC and Thomson Reuters which aims at offering world-class courses led by highly experienced instructors.

Ibtikar provides innovation support and funding for new, local businesses and promises creative ideas across print, online, mobile and television platforms in the Arab world. This fund will not only provide financial support but also practical advice and input from industry experts and specialists to guide initiatives to successful fruition.

Intaj focuses on supplying state-of-the-art production and post-production facilities, media asset management, as well as broadcast and technical support services for use within Twofour54. It equips companies with all of the latest communications technology that is required, including playout, uplink and downlink services.

Tawasol provides a one-stop-shop facility to support the relocation and establishment of content organizations, making it simple for local, regional and international companies to move into Twofour54.

Dr. Nabil Ibrahim, the ADU Chancellor, highlighted the importance of this seminar, which is considered to be the first of its kind at higher education establishments levels, in that it sheds light on this strategic project which deals with the infrastructure of the media sector and methods of targeting the support of young talents while providing sufficient training and funding for small media enterprises and creating an ideal media environment which respects culture diversity, and takes into consideration the human values without any color, gender, religious, or language discrimination.