Global giants renew support for Ibda'a Awards

Companies providing prizes for Ibda'a winners include: Arabian Radio Network (ARN), Canon, CNN, Kodak, Leo Burnett, Lowe Worldwide, Motivate Publishing, Saatchi & Saatchi, Showtime, Team Young & Rubicam.

The internships will provide winners the opportunity to work and interact with seasoned world-class professionals in state-of-the-art media environments. The prizes also will include top of the line equipment which will help the winners enhance their creative capabilities.

"Ibda'a, over the last three years has attracted an amazing diversity of talent in print and television media and this year we hope to bring together an even more exciting body of creative media work," said Abdulhamid Juma, CEO of Dubai Media City. "The prizes graciously being provided by global media giants are a fitting reward for their talent. We thank the award providers this year and hope to continue our long-term partnership with them," he added.

This year, the Ibda'a Media Student Awards has been expanded in scope to include entries from all over the world. The expansion into a worldwide competition realizes its eventual goal of having global reach and appeal. So far, Ibda'a has focused only on a region extending from the Middle East to India and Central Asia to South Africa. However, even in the previous editions, it has attracted significant interest from countries as far a field as US, UK and Australia. The new international Ibda'a Awards is Dubai Media City's response to this global interest.

Ibda'a has launched a massive international campaign, which will see it conduct road-shows in 23 countries - United States, United Kingdom, Australia, Japan, UAE and the GCC countries, Iran, Egypt, Pakistan, India, Morocco, Tunisia, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Syria, Lebanon, Turkey and Jordan.

The Award categories, this year, have been expanded to include two new categories for photography. The expanded list of 10 Award categories includes Journalism, Radio, Digital Photography, Analogue Photography, Film/TV feature, TV Documentary, Graphic Design, TV Advertising, Print Advertising and Animation.

Prizes for the winners of Ibda'a 2004 in each category are as follows:

Radio: One month internship provided by ARN
Digital Photography: Photography equipment provided by Canon

Journalism: One month internship provided by CNN
TV Documentary: Film Equipment provided by Kodak
Animation: One month internship provided by Leo Burnett

TV Advertising: Two weeks internship provided by Lowe Worldwide

Analogue Photography: One month internship provided by Motivate Publishing

Print Advertising: One month internship provided by Saatchi & Saatchi

Film: One month internship provided by Showtime
Graphic Design: One month internship provided by Team Young & Rubicam

"We are pleased to be sponsoring Ibda'a for the second year in a row. We totally support young and new talent and we hope that the winners of this year will be up to the standard especially those who will join our network for a training period," said Abdullatif Al Sayegh, ARN Managing Director

"We are very proud to be sponsoring the Ibda'a digital photography category. Canon has a long-standing leadership position in the market as a promoter and supporter of creative talent. The awards are an excellent opportunity for us to encourage and support students in developing their talents by providing them with the best tools for creativity, in collaboration with the enthusiastic initiative by Dubai Media City" said Mr. Gordon Jones the president of Canon Middle East.

"We are once again delighted to support Ibda'a by providing an internship opportunity for an Award winner at the CNN Bureau in London. CNN remains committed to encouraging young journalists who wish to pursue a career in this dynamic profession", said Ron Ciccone, Senior Vice President and Managing Director for Turner Broadcasting System Europe (TBS) for the Middle East.

"With the recent opening of the new Kodak Cinelabs Dubai at the DMC, we are committed to the further development of the motion picture film industry in the UAE. Supporting young filmmakers and new talents around the world has always been one of Kodak's priorities, and we are very pleased to help this year with such an exciting initiative as Ibda'a." Richard N Lawton, Manager Middle East & Africa, Kodak Entertainment Imaging.

"IBDA'A is an initiative that closely mirrors our own philosophy of identifying and supporting talent which can add value to the industry. We pride ourselves on our commitment to training and investing in people who, it should be emphasised, represent the most important capital in any communications organization", said Raja Trad, CEO, Leo Burnett Group of Companies, Middle East & North Africa.

"The Ibda'a Awards is an excellent platform for young media students. At Lowe we believe that sponsoring the TV Advertising category enables us to give back to the region, and to nurture its young creative talent," said Nirmal Diwadkar, Creative Director, Lowe Dubai.

"We have been supporting Ibda'a since its inception and are delighted once again to be providing an internship for the winner in the Photographic category, in addition to being one of the sponsors," said Ian Fairservice, Managing Partner and Group Editor of Motivate Publishing.

"It is always rewarding to have a student, particularly one who is creative and enthusiastic, working in the organisation particularly in a department such as photography. I'd like to think that we can look forward to welcoming one of these interns back as a full-time member of our team," he added.

"It is the responsibility of the industry at large to identify, nurture and give the right opportunities to young talent. Ibda'a does exactly this and we are proud to be associated with it. As an agency network, we place a lot of emphasis on training and developing youngsters. Supporting IBDAA is an extension of this philosophy," said Robert Mitchell, Managing Director of Saatchi & Saatchi.

"Showtime is delighted to support the Ibda'a initiative for the second year. It is important that we recognise, reward and celebrate the talent of the youth in the region whose contribution is vital for the continued success of media entities who, like Showtime, are choosing Dubai Media City for their regional headquarters.", Said Michael Smith, Marketing Director, Showtime.

"TEAM Young & Rubicam has always acknowledged the necessity for identifying, encouraging and grooming young talent to enrich the industry with gifted minds and brains who can take the industry to newer heights of creative excellence," said Viplove Bakshi, Group HR Manager of Team Young & Rubicam. "This year TEAM Y&R is happy to offer a 4-6 week internship for an Ibda'a winner under the supervision of senior creative personnel. This is again part of our commitment to grooming talent," Bakshi added.