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NAT GEO MAKES ITS MAK IN CITY

which she compares to her hometown Hong Kong. City Times caught up with this woman on the move at the Star TV office villa in Knowledge Village recently. So, what brings you to the emirate and is this your first visit here?

"Being the head of marketing at the non-profit National Geographic channel I travel a lot. You can say, I literally leave out of my suitcase. My job of distribution of programmes since 1997 takes me to various countries of south East Asia. I cover Beijing, Shanghai, Taipei, Tokyo, Delhi, Mumbai, Bangkok and Dubai. The emirate, being the regional office, I am here to market some of our new programmes for the Holy Month of Ramadan and to meet the Star team to draw out our future strategies for the region which is growing very fast."

Can you highlight on the package that you have for the region? "First let me tell you something about our very first regional shows, Muhammad - The Prophet (PBUH) and Inside Makkah, by Aneesa Mahdi who followed the path of three pilgrims right inside the holy cities in Saudi Arabia. This first-of-its-kind show was received very well by the viewers in the region as well as those in the Western countries because so far the Islamic holy places were kept out of the reach of the world but after we went in others too followed the course. The show managed to not only put up our TRP ratings but also brought a renewed respect for the channel which has over the last more than years brought to light some remarkable aspects of discoveries and explorations."

"You must watch our programme on Mars exploration where the scientists responsible for the project talk about the undiscovered areas of the mysterious planet which will soon be the focus of attention for the second biggest landing of man on a planet after moon."

What is your personal mission at National Geographic? "Besides introducing new shows including standards and practices in Malaysia and the rest of Asia, my target is to develop and popularise the channel with cable distributors in the region by getting atleast 1,50,000 viewers for the channel. Earlier, we concentrated on Egyptian archeology etc. But now we will be focussing more on Dubai buildings like Burj Al Arab and the upcoming world's tallest building, the Burj Dubai. We also want to promote the region in the Western world and will try to clear the preconceived notions associated with the place vis-a-vis terrorism, fundamentalism etc.

We also want to work with the schools in introducing documentaries and adventure programmes for educational purposes and to highlight the plight of underage children in Asia who are forced to work by their families and circumstances. This will also include various clean-up the world shows and above all, to get more world personalities to Dubai and to showcase the local culture to the world audience.

And who are your competitors in the region? "I will say it's the Discovery channel. But as you know the National Geographic is a daily cable network launched in the US in 2001 but the parent company, the National Geographic Society is 116 years old and has a large network of scientists, writers and researchers working on its various offbeat projects which, besides covering books, magazines, atlases, charts, maps, videos, CD-ROMS etc the information is brought to life in our TV programmes. So, we can say the increase and diffusion of geographic knowledge and conservation of the world's natural resources is as relevant today as it was when the society was formed a century ago."