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So just to say about the context here of Lunchworks. When we moved into these
offices, it was about in June I think, and we came here in partnership with Reason Digital,
and we wanted to do something really because our client base are really social enterprises
like ourselves. Frankie and I, Dovetail, and Matt and company, are social enterprises,
and we were work with people across the third sector really, we work with charities, arts
organisations and other social enterprises. So what with the financial situation, the
cutbacks in public expenditure and people really feeling the pinch across the sector,
we wanted to do something that was perhaps a little more optimistic and hopeful, kind
of invite people in for lunch and have a discussion. So we've had political commentator Gerry Hassan
came first of all, and then we had a voiceover artist who came last time, and we really wanted
to talk about diverse representation in the media and this is because really, I think organisations
such as ourselves particularly in the current climate need to make the very most of the
assets that we've got, we can't depend all the time on public sector funding, and that's
about profile. We need to make sure that we make the most of all the assets we've got,
and even though a lot of organisations that Frankie and I, and Matt and team work with
may not have a lot of money, what we do have are great stories, we've got great stories,
and fantastic work going on. You know, amazing volunteers, extraordinary projects, artistic
projects and you see people really fulfilling their ambitions and reaching their potential
through real grass roots work with people, volunteers and dedicated workers working with
them on the ground, and I think a lot of us feel that we have great stories going on,
and maybe we feel some barriers to getting them out on the media when we're pitted against
people who have great big PR machines behind them. So that's the context in which we wanted
to have this discussion today, so as I say, we've asked you kindly for questions, well
we haven't asked you kindly, you've kindly given us questions. So what we're going to
do is, we're going to go forth and have these questions and a discussion, but first of all,
Aziz might like to say a few words about your work. Sure. And your coming here today.
I'm Aziz. I was invited to do this. To tell
you the truth, I wasn't really sure what I let myself in for, but I said to Julia, please
send me some questions from people so I've got an idea of what it is I'm trying to answer.
I have some answers to some of those questions. Some of the questions I didn't have answers
to so I've emailed a whole load of people this week and said, do we do this, and how
do we do this, and how does this work? So I might read little bits from notes that I've
had from various different people working in our Outreach department, working in our
diversity department, and all the rest of it. I mean obviously as BBC Manager I know
some of it myself. I've been based in the North West for eighteen months now, I joined
as head of BBC North West in March 2009. I am basically in charge of all the regional
and local programming in the North West. That means two hundred and fifty staff based in
Manchester, Liverpool and Lancashire, working on BBC Radio Lancashire, BBC Radio Merseyside,
BBC Radio Manchester, the websites for Liverpool, Manchester and, Liverpool, Manchester and
Lancashire. Also all the TV programming that goes out in the North West for regional programming,
so that means North West Tonight, it means Inside Out, our weekly half hour documentary,
it means Late Kick Off, which is a weekly football that runs four months a year, and
The Politics Show that runs every Sunday. So I kind of work across TV, radio and the
web, across the North West. Here in Manchester there's a lot more than that going on, Manchester
is already one of the biggest, outside London department BBC, all of BBC religion programmes,
radio and TV come from Manchester, lots of BBC entertainment programmes like Question
of Sport, Dragons Den, University Challenge, are made in Manchester. BBC Three comedies
are made in Manchester, the BBC Philharmonic is based here, we've got radio current affairs
like File on 4 and Assignment on Radio 4 are made in Manchester. Reports for The Late Show
are made by current affairs team in Manchester, so there's a lot of other people, there's
eight hundred staff in Manchester already, and I'm in charge of about two hundred of
the staff based in Manchester so there's lots of people doing other things in Manchester.
And I'm sure you've all heard about Salford, and about the move to Media City, so this
will become the second biggest BBC Centre outside London, with two and a half thousand
staff at Media City and the extra departments coming up. BBC Sport, BBC Five - Radio Five
Live, all of the children's departments, so you know, Newsround, Blue Peter, CBeebies
and CBBC will all be run from Salford, and the BBC Learning Department as well, and a
big chunk of our, we call it Future Media and Technology which is not a very easy to
understand thing, but basically the people who do all the online and interactive stuff,
a big chunk of them are coming. So the people who are developing the new Internet TV called
YouView which you will hear a lot about in the next few years, they're coming to Manchester.
The BBC, the people who build the front page of BBC Online, they'll be based in Manchester
as well.