Blog by world challenge 2010 executive producer, Robert Lamb

27-09-2010

On 2nd October World Challenge returns to BBC World News.

We received close to 1000 nominations and through a rigorous process of evaluation arrived at the dozen finalists from Africa, Latin America and Asia. Currently, our crews are filming the stories and have received fantastic cooperation from all concerned. Already, the first two stories have been edited. We have a demanding schedule to fulfil before voting closes on at midnight on 12th November.

World Challenge 2010 is the sixth in the series. One big difference between now and the start in 2006, is that nearly as many nominators cite the Internet as the broadcasts as the principal means of finding out about the competition. It's great to see all the effort we've put into publicising online, payoff in terms of a huge volume and diversity of nominations.

We are continuing this year with the 'catch up' section at the end of each programme where we feature what happened since the project or business was first featured on BBC World News. It is gratifying to find out how well they are doing. Nearly all managers tell us that the publicity gave them a real boost -- especially, those with a product to sell on the international markets. So watch out for these follow-up stories this time around.

A new innovation For World Challenge 2010 will be 'Soapbox'. This time, we are giving finalists up to 30 seconds to make their appeals direct to the viewers to vote for their enterprise. As ever, viewers will find it to be a difficult choice!

Posted by Robert Lamb