We are here with Mr Wayne Borg, Chief Operating Officer of 2454, an Abu Dhabi-based company that deals in creative content generation training and hopefully inspiring a new generation of young Middle Easteners to create their own content and pursue careers in the creative industry. Thank you very much for joining us Wayne. Thank you for having me. I've given a bit of a brief introduction. Do you just want to kind of expand a little bit more on the kind of work that you're doing and how you actually operate? Sure. 2454 was set up by the Abu Dhabi government just on two years ago now and the brief is very much about creating a center of excellence for Arabic content creation and that's a pretty tall order in terms of a brief and really it's about establishing a media hub for the region and for us they're sort of essentially four key constituent components to that. One is about skills development, two is about providing enabling facilities, thirdly what this is all about here today and tomorrow helping support creative entrepreneurship and then finally bringing it all together in an integrated way into a community. You've been with a company, I think you said three years. I've been there since the beginning, yep, since the beginning. Three years. What was the landscape like when you first sort of came on board and were surveying what opportunities were there or what skills were actually available in the market? What was your assessment? In essence, you know what was what we realised very quickly is that there really isn't a creative center in the region. Obviously content gets produced but it's predominantly driven by facilities. There isn't really a place where the creative community can come together, feels supported in an environment that's conducive to what they do which is in essence produce great content to connect with audiences and that is in large part what we're attempting to address by bringing all those necessarily elements together to allow that creative community to do what they do which is to reduce great content for audiences in the region. I think when you look at the Middle East there you have basically two poles, we talked about hubs, you have Cairo which is obviously the film industry which probably isn't as powerful as it was say 15-20 years ago and you have Bayroot which is the music industry. But as you say there isn't really anything that way you would say we're talking about the more kind of 21st century industries animation, you know gaming is an absolute, it's a perfect example. Dihydroton. Applications, iPhone, the whole new trend of moving content digitally. Is that something that you're now are you looking to try and create that hub around your business in the Middle East? Absolutely, you know our role is to be a facilitator and really we look at the entire sort of content creation landscape. So traditional areas such as film and television but as you say some of the you know emerging areas such as children's content, animation, gaming, digital content, you know there's a significantly large audience in this region that's not really being catered to when you think that there are 340 million people in the mean region, 60% of that audience is under the age of 25 and there's no content that really addresses their needs in many of those sectors. I think what you can point to some encouraging signs we have Nathan McBauer in Kuwait producing the 1919 we have people like Selema Lablehid in Jordan producing the Araname range of cartoons. This is positive but again we're talking about individuals we need to create a culture. Well you know two four fifty four is about a community, a content creation community and today we've got on just 100 companies operating at two four fifty four ranging from large you know news gathering organizations like CNN who've got you know they're fourth only ever broadcast hub internationally you know broadcasting every night from Abu Dhabi to the world. You know that is a you know it creates many jobs in journalism but also you know technical roles production camera work and so forth we've got publishers both traditional publishers digital publishers animation houses local companies such as Blink Studios right through to organizations like Cartoon Network who were all focused on content creation. This isn't just about sales offices or representative offices it is about you know creating content for the audiences of the region Arabic content of that. So let's move on then how do you actually work you talked about the large organizations that you've managed to partner up with and work with how does actually your sort of day to day operations help create this community and foster this community. Sure well firstly you know we talk about companies in the community so they're creating job opportunities. We have two four fifty four to dream which is a vocational learning academy focused on the industry so you know we have a number of partners including the BBC Thompson Reuters the Thompson Foundation Apple Adobe and that's all about skills you know and ensuring that you know we're training the people in the industry to be at a proficiency level that's at international standard so as many of these companies come from overseas and establish operations they've got you know they can recruit people from within the region that are at a skills level that they require but more broadly it's about how we start to develop you know the the leaders of the industry for tomorrow so school leaders and graduates and we've just started with full-time courses one of those is Cartoon Network Animation Academy course which is a full-time one-year course in all aspects of animation so you know it's starting to to broaden out you know what the industry is for young people because many of them don't really understand the full breadth of what's available in terms of career choices but also more importantly giving them options and for those passionate creative individuals out there giving them a platform to to realise their dreams and ambitions can we talk about successes yet in the in the three years since it started come have you seen examples of people that have emerged from the program or or content developers that you work with starting to employ young people yeah very much so I think you know many of the companies we've talked about you know are taking on young people from within the region offering internships and traineeship programs you know Ip Dicca which is our you know in essence our incubator for young creative businesses you know we've invested in eight businesses to date and we know we've even know we've been established for three years we've only been operational for two so you know we've achieved quite a lot in a relatively short period of time I think one I think there's very very important when we're talking about you said a community of 340 million people is the abilities for people to take possession of their own stories to tell their own stories in their own way I think when we look across the region you know even domestic TV stations like you know the likes of Dubai one in the NBC's there's an awful lot of content that's coming in from from America and not all of it a fantastic quality I think that you know if the Arab world needs to sort of take possession of its own culture it needs to start telling its own stories yeah absolutely and I think you know you look at many other parts of the world in Europe the UK Germany France Australia you know they're all established their own industries to tell you know their own stories and you know our view is why shouldn't this region be any different why should there be a reliance on import content as opposed to generating you know stories from within the region telling the stories of the region and connecting with the people of the region so that's very important for us that we give you know the talent of the region that opportunity and you know we firmly believe on a on a broader scale that you know strong culture means stronger societies I think on a slightly more controversial point if I may how important is it that the governments in the region start to relax kind of maybe slightly more social or regulatory frameworks in which people you know you sort of get a sense that people are slightly frightened to enter into creative pursuit or tell our own stories for fear of sensor whether social or or government how do we are we in a position where we're now that is now starting to be relaxed that people are more confident you know telling their stories in a way that they feel comfortable with well I think you know certainly what's happening in Abu Dhabi you know two four fifty four is a government initiative and I think you know that reflects sort of the government's focus and desire on developing this industry sector and when you put in the context of Abu Dhabi's ambition to become a cultural center with with many of the initiatives that are happening there around Saddi Adalman and the the development of the Guggenheim the Louvre and so forth and there's a realization that you know the creative industries basis an important complement to to being a cultural center and given the symbiosis between those two industries you know the government to you know have responded accordingly and sort of see two four fifty four as a key initiative in the future development of Abu Dhabi and how important is it that we send the message to young people in the region that creative industries are actually a real valid career opportunity incredibly important you know apart from being a you know an outlet you know it's a very important sector for many economies you look at North America for example you know the creative industries as an export industry is only second two arms and defense and I think that puts it in some context in terms of the economic benefit but also you know as we mentioned earlier the macro benefits to the society in terms of you know reflecting the society connecting with the society and you know having stories told from you know one's own culture finally what do you hear for what are you looking to what are you looking to achieve the next couple of days what kind of things you're looking to see from this incredible celebration of entrepreneurship yeah now this is a fantastic event and you know as two four fifty four we're here in our capacity through our incubator two four fifty four iptica which is all about helping promote stimulate and support creative entrepreneurship you know we've got a number of aspects that the creative lab which helps young individuals who've got a great idea but not necessarily a great business proposition we'll help you know with the grant to further develop that idea but we also have a more formal investment vehicle called iptica ventures and that's looking at young creative entrepreneurs you've got a great arabic you know business creative business proposition that we can help further develop and ensure sustainable business so we're looking to meet as many young entrepreneurs and creative entrepreneurs as possible from the region i'm sure you'll find them here Wayneborg thank you very much indeed for your time and good luck with the rest of the com thanks Eddie thank you very much indeed