(14 February 2006 11 p.m.)

NEW DELHI: What’s common between I&B minister Priyaranjan Dasmunshi, Prannoy Roy, old BBC hand Mark Tully, ABC chairman Donald McDonald and BBC World’s Richard Sambrook?

Well, all these TV and media personalities and many more will be sharing their views on broadcasting and latest trends in Delhi as part of the 26th general conference of the Commonwealth Broadcasting Association (CBA).

The conference, which is being co-hosted by Indian pubcaster Prasar Bharati, will be held from February 15-18 where the theme is `Making A Difference in the Multi-Platform World’.

The conference, to be inaugurated by Dasmunshi, is likely to be attended by more than 250 delegates from over 100 Commonwealth nations.

While Prasar Bharati CEO KS Sarma will deliver the welcome address, I&B secretary SK Arora will give the keynote address.

Though the list of speakers almost looks like a media list of who’s who of the Commonwealth nations, the attractions include the media-shy NDTV president Roy who is speaking on the first day on `Making a Difference:
Income and Impact’.

On the second day, Prasar Bharati’s Sarma and Zee Telefilms director Punit Goenka are slated to speak on `New Content, New platforms’.

Doordarshan DG Navin Kumar, BBC World Service and Global News director Richard Sambrook and South African Broadcasting Corporation group CEO Dali Mpofu will share their thoughts on `Survival Strategies for Public Broadcasters’.

Other key speakers include the Commonwealth secretary-general Rt Hon Don McKinnon, Irene Khan, secretary-general of Amnesty International, AIR’s director-general B. Singh and UNESCO additional director-general (communication & information) Abdul Waheed Khan.

Apart from live demonstrations on the emerging medium of podcasting, a 30-minute compilation of items about the Commonwealth and about Commonwealth countries and peoples, titled `Pick of the Commonwealth’ will be made available as a podcast.

This means that anyone can subscribe (free) to the programme, and receive automatic downloads. Full instructions and how to make use of this new service are on www.cba.org.uk/pick. It is presented by Robin White, formerly with the BBC World Service. The programme has a shelf-life of a month and is downloadable in broadcast quality.

The CBA Awards will be presented on the evening of 16 February at a dinner at which Sir Mark Tully will be the master of ceremonies.

NDTV, ABC, Bharat Sanchar Nigam, BBC World Service, Indian Broadcasting Foundation (IBF), ONGC and the British Council in India are some of the major sponsors. Exhibitors include SHAF Broadcast, BBC World Service Trust, ABC Asia Pacific, VT Communications, Inscriber, Red Bee, Teko Telecom and Prasar Bharati.