1. Why the Workshop
   

BON in the past few years has achieved quite a lot in the area of collaboration among member stations to procure the broadcast rights of global events and exploit them namely:

• Melbourne Commonwealth Games 2006
• English Premier League 2007 – 2010 Football Seasons
• 2008 MTN Africa Cup of Nations
• 2008 Beijing Olympic Games
  

In November 12, 2008, BON was formally awarded the media rights (transmission rights) of the South Africa World Cup, 2010 World Cup and Aligned Properties which includes the following properties:

• FIFA Under-17 Women’s World Cup 2008
• FIFA Under-20 Women’s World Cup 2008
• FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup 2008
• Futsal World Cup 2008
• FIFA Under-20 World Cup 2009
• FIFA Under-17 World Cup 2009
• FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup 2009
• FIFA Confederation’s Cup South Africa 2009
• FIFA Under-17 Women’s World Cup 2010
• FIFA Under-20 Women’s World Cup 2010
  

While BON has made huge strides in the acquisition of media rights and their exploitation, same cannot be said in the area of training and capacity building. BON is determined to ensure the routine training of staff of member stations in news, programmes, engineering, administration etc.

Consequently, BON has set out a road map to ensure that management and staff of all member organizations are engaged in the area of training, to enable them to be attuned to the latest developments in broadcasting in the digital ara.

BON General Assembly meeting held in Lokoja, Kogi State in August 2009 resolved that training and capacity building will be pursued from a three prong attack, firstly, from the Central Level at BON Secretariat, then to the Six Zones, reflecting the geo-political divisions of the country and finally at the Broadcast Stations level, each broadcast station is expected to routinely organize in-house seminars and workshops for their staff.

At the BON Secretariat level we have recently organized a train the trainee’s workshop for Directors of News and Current Affairs/Managers from BON member stations on the professional use of Newspaper review that was not professionally done in the past. Over 100 Directors of News and Current Affairs/Managers attended the seminar, in Abuja in March 2009 and Lagos in July 2009. BON engaged a United States Non-Governmental Organization, Internews International, to serve as our resource persons. We intend to ensure that member stations are trained in other broadcast departments, programmes, engineering, administration.

2. Benefits/Objectives of Workshop

• BON’s collaboration with Solsan Communication, a tested and successful broadcast engineering and capacity building company, is to vigorously pursue our focus on training and capacity building in this digital age.

• We want to focus on pro-active management and ensure that broadcast Chief Executive of public stations shade off this mindset of relying only on government subventions to survive, while the private ones seek on how to enhance their revenue.

• While government should fund publicly owned stations, they should be able to create the necessary content that will attract patronage from sponsors and advertising agencies. They could look into other areas to raise funds to run their outfits.

• This is the key objective of inviting experts to engage them in this area.

• We also invited Information Managers as part of the workshop, namely Commissioners of Information, Director of Corporate Affairs, Public and Private Companies, to benefit from the latest trends in broadcast management as well as provide the forum for Chief Executives of Radio/TV stations to network with them.
• Nigeria has fixed 2012 as the deadline of the transition from analogue to digital broadcasting. 2012 is barely two years away, yet most Radio and Television stations in Nigeria still predominantly operate with analogue technology.

How can we fast track this problem? The workshop will equally address it, giving the necessary option on how to transit from analogue to digital broadcasting and how to effectively manage resources to achieve this.

• The attendance of Government Policy Makers in the information sector will enable them to comprehend the developments in the global digital technology and to enable them give informed briefing to the Federal or State Governments, why they should urgently fund the replacement of analogue broadcasting equipment in owned Broadcast stations with digital. Given the current banking situation in Nigeria, an opportunity now exists for funding of this upgrade and transition by a European Consortium who will be present at the workshop at a very attractive rate of interest

• BON and Solsan Communications intend to make the workshop interactive in nature, mixed with seriousness and leisure. Hence the choice of Tinapa Studios, Tinapa as the venue of the workshop.

He will also present a keynote address to usher in the ceremony. While the Chairman of BON and Director-General of Voice of Nigeria, Mallam Abubakar Jijiwa will speak on Sharing Information & Resources in Technical and Programming among Nigerian Broadcast Practitioners. Over 20 Resource persons will present papers on various topics during the workshop.

BON and Solsan chose Tinapa to showcase the huge tourism potentials of the State and Nigeria.

As broadcasters such sites, are congenial to stimulate our thoughts for creative content.