Sean Moroney:What we call the creative content industry has huge untapped potential in Africa. Creative talent and energy abounds across the continent but we need to channel this into creative activities that bring financial returns and increase income earning power.
So, we decided to develop a two-day business event that provides an in-depth technology and business briefing, focusing on the best practices across the continent and internationally. All this is to accelerate the growth of our film and broadcast industries.
Moroney: We have exposed a large number of emerging enterprises in the sector to potential partners, suppliers, investors and customers. That is what we aim to do with each of our events.
Moroney: In East Africa in particular there is a huge unmet demand for local content. Viewers want content that they relate to their lives and aspirations. To some extent Nollywood has filled this gap but low quality series from Europe and South America are still bought by broadcasters as cheap content. So, local content development remains limited.
Moroney: We need to find new business models, and subsidies to develop and promote local production initiatives. The region needs to be promoted as a creative industries destination for international and local production ventures.
This is why this year, we have timed our conference to coincide with the Zanzibar International Film Festival, taking place over the same period, to maximise the attraction for international industry stakeholders to visit the region and explore its potential.
Moroney: Suppliers like Sony and Samsung provide world class technology that the industry needs to achieve high-quality production and broadcasts. Beyond that, they can educate their customers to achieve higher levels of excellence.
That's why we are working with Sony to hold training workshops during the conference on production quality techniques. More of this sort of training needs to be done in the region and perhaps through industry associations.
Moroney: I don't think any country has developed an ideal migration strategy. Different lessons can be learnt from a wide range.
Moroney: Government leadership, with consultation and input from industry stakeholders - also at a regional level. So EAC, for example, could play a role in developing standards across the region, to provide guidelines and key milestones to achieve across the region.
Moroney: We have two major focus areas: Content Development and Content Distribution. Content development faces huge challenges in terms of lack of resources and lack of capacity and investment. We will be looking at alternative or new business models that can leverage on international or regional partnerships.
And in Distribution, there are dramatic and exciting new developments in the market, including mobile broadcasting, the launch of digital, which opens up multiple distribution channels, as well as new satellite technologies, which will also spread services and drive down costs. All these developments will be covered in detail.
Moroney: For the first time this year, we have introduced music as a conference focus area. This is a rapidly growing industry, with a huge talent pool that through convergence with broadcasting and film-making will multiply its revenue-earning potential.
Moroney: The conference is definitely pan-African. It is our intention to grow it into the continent's leading annual technology and business event for the electronic media and creative content industries.
With government and industry support we can grow it into the annual must-attend event for stakeholders from throughout the continent that reinforces East Africa's status as a creative industries business and investment destination.
