ABU DHABI: Noura Al-Kaabi, the young Emirati lady who heads the Tawasol, one of the four pillars of the well-known twofour54 media project in Abu Dhabi, dreams of a huge media zone that she hopes will turn into a renowned center of excellence for Arabic content creation.
Last month, the media zone’s decision to appoint an Emirati woman as the head of Tawasol drew international attention.
The establishment of a media campus has put Abu Dhabi one step closer to its goal of becoming the cultural and media center of the Middle East. The Abu Dhabi media zone offers training to the region’s journalists and filmmakers as well as providing a base for Western companies to conduct business.
“We will bring together local, regional and international companies who share our vision and are related to film, broadcast, digital publishing and music industries,” says Al-Kaabi, who holds a bachelor’s degree in management information system from the UAE University.
“Although I used to watch English news channels and read a lot during my school days, I never thought of doing any media-related assignment then, but when I got into it, it became my passion,” she told Arab News.
Since October 2007, she has been involved in research at the Executive Affairs Authority of Abu Dhabi that implemented several key media projects during the past one year. Before that, Al-Kaabi held senior IT and HR positions in Zayed Military Hospital and Dolphin Energy.
“Through twofour54, we are trying to create an integrated, state-of-the-art environment that supports and inspires media content creators to flourish in the Middle East and North Africa,” says Al-Kaabi.
“Our concept is totally different from the existing facilities in the region,” she added.
“Twofour54 is built around four pillars — Tadreeb (training), Ibtikar (innovation), Intaj (production) and Tawasol (interaction). We offer world-class production and post-production facilities, a vocational learning center, creative labs and a new business incubator. Twofour54 is not just a publishing or a reprinting center. It is a huge project and we have top-notch people to execute it,” Al-Kaabi explained. “Tawasol, which I currently head, will provide a one-stop-shop facility to support the relocation and establishment of organizations and help them move into twofour54.
“We want to make our partners happy. They are coming from different continents to contribute to the development of the country. Tawasol will help them get what they need. We will also hold workshops and other events to create awareness among our partners about the culture here.
“We will do for them the basic paperwork needed for them to settle down here and also help them in getting basic needs for their employees,” she said.
Tadreeb will be a premier vocational training academy targeting young Arabs and graduates considering a career in the media industry as well as providing existing media and entertainment professionals with opportunities to develop their skill.
BBC is going to conduct several courses including camera shooting, editing and writing for radio. Thomson Reuters Foundation will be hosting vocational training workshops in subjects such as writing international news, sports or photojournalism, television news coverage and writing business news.
“We want to train Arab youths in the best professional way. The region has a shortage of professional media personalities and I hope we will overcome the shortage in a short time.
“Besides BBC and Thomson Reuters Foundation, Random House, Harper Collins, Rotana Studios, Hyde Park Entertainment, Thomson Foundation, Financial Times, Abu Dhabi Media Company and C Sky Pictures are also on board,” she said.
Ibtikar will provide innovation support and funding for new, local businesses and promising creative ideas across print, online, mobile and television platforms in the Middle East and North Africa.
Intaj is focused on supplying state-of-the-art production and post-production facilities, media asset management, broadcast and technical support services for use within twofour54.
For example, CNN will be broadcasting a live daily newscast out of a new broadcast and production facility at the zone, set to open in early 2009 as its fourth global hub.
London, Hong Kong and Mexico City are the only three other international cities from which CNN has the capability to produce studio broadcasts.
