On January 18th, 2016, Connected Studio (a part of the BBC’s research and development department), and BBC News Labs, in partnership with CcHUB (Co-Creation Hub) are holding a collaborative ideas workshop in Lagos, Nigeria. The workshop is aimed at generating ideas for digital tools, to optimise the distribution of BBC content in Africa.
“We are inviting digital agencies, entrepreneurs and tech enthusiasts within the tech ecosystem both locally (Nigeria) and on a global scale, to take part.”
Following an open invitation for proposals, there will be an opportunity for selected ideas to be developed into pilots. Successful teams will be paid to build these pilots, and will receive additional support, geared towards developing internationally applicable skills. This process can take up to 6 months, so teams are expected to be available during this period. The pilots will undergo local user-testing, and once completed, it will be launched on BBC Taster, the BBC global public testing platform.
The BBC appears to be trying to garner a younger audience for itself, than the 28 million it serves every week in Nigeria, and wants to partner with the local digital industry to achieve this goal.
The aim of the event is to answer questions like:
1. How can we innovatively reach 16-34 year olds across Africa, on smart and feature phones, in urban and rural environments?
2. Mobile dependence is on the rise, and is expected to continue this trend across various aspects of our daily lives. Expectations are changing, and users want increasingly personalised content. How can we plug ourselves into their daily digital routine?
3. How will users conveniently access relevant content, at little or no cost?
4. How do we engage African smartphone users without neglecting feature phone users?
5. How will BBC content feature in users’ online (social) media experiences?
6. How can the BBC’s existing audience carry the experience over to their mobile phones?
The event will run from 5pm till 7:30pm, on the aforementioned date, Monday, January 18th, at the Co-Creation Hub: 6th Floor, 294 Herbert Macaulay way, Sabo, Yaba, Lagos.
You can make a reservation via Eventbrite, here, connect with the organisers via Twitter @BBC_Connected, or send an email to connectedstudio@bbc.co.uk for more information.
