BBC Connected Studio, the World Service and BBC News Labs are holding a collaborative ideas workshop in Lagos on 18 January 2016 in partnership with Co-Creation Hub.

The aim of this event is to generate ideas for digital tools and products that better distribute BBC News to African audiences, and increase the reach in ways that are relevant to these markets.

Following this open invitation for proposals there will be an opportunity for selected ideas that meet the brief criteria to be developed into pilots. Successful teams will not only be paid to build these pilots but will receive further resource and help to develop skills at an international level. The build of the pilot could take up to six months, and therefore teams that are selected should be available during this period. We believe that the audience is at the heart of everything the BBC does and therefore it is important throughout the process to get user-feedback. During the build of the pilot we’ll undertake local user-testing and once the pilot is complete, it will be launched on BBC taster [bbc.co.uk/taster], our global public testing platform.

We are inviting digital agencies, entrepreneurs and tech enthusiasts within the tech ecosystem both locally (Nigeria) and on a global scale to take part.

Further details on the challenge:

The BBC is well known in Africa, and valued for its trustworthy, objective and relevant news; the weekly audience in Nigeria alone is estimated to be 28 million, 75% of which are radio listeners. People turn to the BBC for trusted global news, sport and entertainment, but we want to better serve our younger African audiences in a more digitally-focussed way, whilst working in partnership with the African digital industry to do so.

For more information, please email connectedstudio@bbc.co.uk.

These are the questions we’d like to answer:

How can we innovatively reach 16-34 year olds across Africa, on smart and feature phones, in urban and rural environments.

The use of mobile devices in Africa rapidly grows. Mobile phone dependence increases more aspects of the daily life, expectations are changing and users want personalised relevant content. How can we plug ourselves into their daily digital routine?

How do users access the content that is relevant to them, and use it when it suits them, at a little to no cost?

How might we engage with African smartphone users & also cater to feature phone users?

How might BBC content feature in users’ social media experiences?

How can existing BBC users continue enjoying the BBC on their mobile phones?

If you have any questions regarding the event or registration, please email connectedstudio@bbc.co.uk or contact us via twitter @BBC_Connected.

Register Here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/bbc-connected-studio-world-service-tickets-19928426460

Event Details:

Date: February 1st, 2015

Time: 5pm – 7.30pm

Venue: Co-Creation Hub: 6th Floor, 294 Herbert Macaulay way, Sabo, Yaba. Lagos