Highland 2007
Today I'm in Inverness, teaming up with our Senior Producer, Pennie Latin for a meeting with Alison Bell and Julie Corbett at . It's a year-long festival celebrating Highland culture at the community, national and international level. The festival's H.Q. is based at Abertaff House, the oldest building in Inverness which still has an internal stone spiral staircase and a lingering smell like burning peat but, they tell me, 'no ghost'.
We're hoping Radio Scotland will cover the festival in a big way, with a special Radio Highland programme and regular features on the Radio Cafe. I'm also hoping we can involve schools thoughout the Highlands, the Northern Isles and Moray in this project, training groups of children to use digital equipment so they can report on the various events happening throughout 2007. Ideally they would be taught how to record interviews, make their own podcasts and populate a website with photographs and audio.
This would be managed by Pennie's production team in Inverness, but it's not clear how many schools would want to take part or how we would fund the training and equipment needed. Here's hoping...
I'm keen on the idea because it would leave a lasting legacy of media awareness and skills.