Kenya: Nairobi to Host Broadcast, Film and Music Africa Conference
By NewsfromAfrica
NAIROBI--The fourth annual Broadcast, Film & Music Africa (BFMA) Conference, taking place in Nairobi over 10-11 July, will coincide with the Zanzibar International Film Festival (ZIFF) taking place over 7-15 July, to double the attraction for creative industry professionals throughout the world to travel to East Africa and experience African film and art.
From the confirmations, the speaker line-up for BFMA reflects widespread participation of experts from across the continent. There will be an impressive participation from Nollywood movers and film executives. Scheduled to speak at BFMA include Jason Njoku, CEO and Founder of iROKOtv, Michael Ugwu, director of iROKOng, Sola Green from Media Made in Africa, Gregory Olumuya Odutayo of Royal Roots Communications and Eric Idiahi of Splinlet (which has been billed as Africa’s iTunes). Dr Sophia Zhang from StarTimes, Nigeria will also share her experiences on digital media at the conference.
As West Africa’s Film scene and broadcast industry compares wisdom with the rest of Africa, BFMA will see other West African electronic media players, including Ghanians Samuel Attah-Mensah, CEO of Omni-Media and Akwasi Ageyman, MD of Global Media Alliance Broadcasting.
Uganda will be represented by William Odoch of Revelation Media and Abubaker Kawenja, a prominent journalist and theatre practitioner among others.
Valuable insights will be shared by Michael Dearham, Senior Vice-President of Cote Ouest Mauritius, former head of archiving at DSTV. Kevan Jones, Executive Director of the South African Communication Industries Association, will provide an overview of latest trends across the continent.
Other South African speakers include Envir Fraser, Head of Research, Regulatory & Policy and Convergence Partners, a leading South African investment fund, who will be talking on “Investment in media across Africa: Regulation, piracy, multiplay”, and Jason Lobel, Regional Director for Africa at NDS, who will be doing a showcase presentation on “Trends in digital television in Africa: Where is the market and what are the opportunities?” Another speaker from South Africa, Steve Rich, a pioneer in African satellite communications, will be speaking on broadcast content delivery through latest satellite technologies.
Cote D’Ivoire will be represented by Corinne Loze, CEO of www.StarAfrica.com at Orange.
Belgium’s voice in broadcast and film will be heard through Dr Ann Overbergh, an audio visual expert and from the UK, will be Dr Fred Mundhai, senior lecturer of media and communication at the School of Art and Design at Coventry University. Justine Atkinson , CEO of UK-based Aya Distribution will also present.
Experts from Kenya’s Film industry will include Peter Mutie, CEO of the Kenya Film Commission, Vivien Maries, MD Africa for Intermedia, Joe Otin , Research & Monitoring Director at Ipsos Synovate and Gary Rathbone, MD for Africa at Supersport Also from Kenya will be Jaco du Toit, UNESCO Communication and Information Advisor, Julian Smallwood, Partner & Director at Media Made in Africa, Daniel Obam- Communication Radio Technology expert at the National Communications Secretariat, Tobias Seda, GM of Adcare, Julian Macharia of Royal Media Services, Lilian Muendo of Kenya Broadcasting Commission, Santos Okuttah, MD of Eziki Kenya and Mary Lusiba, head of communication at BBC.
Mukura Were, the Founder of the East Africa Documentary Network, will make a presentation on ”local content development, successes and hurdles” with special reference to the documentary industry in East Africa. Zuku/ Wananchi Group will be presented at BFMA by Hannelle Bekker, Managing Director for Programming.
Sean Moroney, Chairman of AITEC Africa, which organizes the conference, says the event’s vision is to become the leading annual business and technology gathering for Africa’s rapidly growing creative content industry. “The level of expertise we have lined up for the conference this year is a compelling educational and networking opportunity for electronic media professionals from throughout the continent.”