Dear colleagues,
RTV Slovenija was delighted to welcome you to the 26th CIRCOM Regional Annual Conference in Maribor, Slovenia which took place from 15th to 17th May 2008 in the Convention Centre Habakuk and was be hosted by Televizija Maribor.
Televizija Maribor is a member of the family of three radio and two television regional stations of Regional RTV Centre Maribor, which includes radio and television programme for Hungarian minority in Slovenia. We broadcast our programmes on our own channels for a population of 700.000 inhabitants in North-East Slovenia (35% of whole Slovene population). Televizija Maribor has participated in all CIRCOM Regional Conferences and other events in the last 14 years. RTV Slovenija, who became member of CIRCOM Regional 20 years ago, hosted the CR Annual Conference in 1990.
In 2008 RTV Slovenija celebrates three great anniversaries: 80th anniversary of Radio Slovenija, 50th anniversary of Televizija Slovenija and 40th anniversary of the outset of regional TV broadcasting in Maribor and Slovene Styria. We celebrated all of it with you. The year 2008 is also an anniversary year for CIRCOM Regional: in Maribor we celebrated 25th anniversary of our organisation.
Motto of the 26th Annual Conference was DO IT GLOCAL! We focused on the impact of new EU policy on public broadcasting across Europe, where regional television is one of the most important windows for well informed citizens. We asked why regional sport is more than a game and how regional broadcasters become global players in that industry. We also asked ourselves about the future of broadcasting journalism etc... etc... We hope Maribor Conference will stay in your memory for many ideas, good coproduction proposals and new common projects.
Zoran Medved
Senior Editor, TV Maribor
CR Slovenian National Coorinator
On 10-11 April 2007, quite soon after the Easter, Circom regional Secretary General Peter Sauer and members of his team from Nürnberg and Zagreb have visited Maribor, the next host of 26th Circom regional Annual Conference. It will be organised from 15-17 May 2008, before it, at 8-10 November 2007 Maribor will host the meetings of CR Executive Committee and the European Board.
A selection of the best shows of regional European TV Stations was organised this year by the Regional RTV Centre Maribor – the Prix Circom 2006, while in 2003 the hosting of the executive committee took place. In all these events the Regional RTV Centre Maribor has proven itself to be a successful organiser and a friendly host to such events. The hosts are especially proud of the fact that we were able to provide the most modern working conditions in terms of technology for this year’s Prix jury in the entire history of the event. This time the representatives of Terme Maribor hotels&resorts have presented the Convention Centre Habakuk, Hotel Bellevue and other facilities already preliminary reserved for the next CR conference and the annual Journalism Workshop.
Three hotels for the conference and one for the workshop are in the same green area of the city and all can offer 290 rooms for the delegates, trainers and trainees. The modern convention centre is equiped for complete multimedia, internet, translation and usual technical support for the conference. Members of the CR General Secretariat were convinced that Maribor can offer very good conditions for accomodations, for the
conference and for social events, which will be connnected with several anniversaries of RTV Slovenija and regional broadcasting in Maribor, the capital of Slovenian Styria. The hosts presented their proposal to organise the Prix Circom Award Gala evening as a big entertainment in the National Theatre, Opera and Ballet House in Maribor and to produce it with live coverage in the prime time on the one of national channels of TV Slovenia. At the end of a second day they are planning a big open air concert in the center of the city and for the last day afternoon they will organise an adventure on the Drava river: tour with big wooden rafts and visit of a wild part of Slovenian Carintia.
City of Maribor has very good traffic conections with all parts of Europe: by airplane (Maribor has its own airport with Ryanair regular flights from and to London, and very close are the airports in Graz, Ljubljana and Zagreb connected with all main destinations in Europe), by car and by train.
The year 2008 is also a special year for RTV Slovenia. In the first half of 2008 Slovenia will chair the European Union while RTV Slovenia will celebrate many distinguished and venerable anniversaries: the 80th anniversary of Radio Slovenia, 50th anniversary of Television Slovenia and the 40th anniversary of the first TV studio in Maribor, which had at that time marked the beginnings of the current regional television in North-East Slovenia. And city of Maribor is the most serious Slovenian candidate for European Capital of Culture in 2012. We would be honoured if we could share but a small part of our creativity and delight at these jubilees with you.