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Reality TV test for Bahrainis

Manama, May 3, 2014

Thirteen entrepreneurs are battling to win a Bahraini reality show that could help them set up their own business.

The Mission, in its second season, started with 14 Bahrainis exploring different avenues in the business sector to learn about launching a successful company.

Contestants were divided into two groups The Innovators and The Pioneers to compete against each other for 10 missions.

The team that loses a mission has to choose a member to leave the show.

Last week, The Pioneers team voted out one of their own and the remaining 13 participants will continue to fight for the top spot tonight when the show airs on Bahrain TV.

Producer and director Ahmed Al Shaikh told the Gulf Daily News, our sister publication, the contestants were shortlisted from an initial number of 300 applicants who went through the Tamkeen training programme.

"After the training and through interviews we chose the best 100 participants," he said.

"After that, we had group discussions and further narrowed down the number to the best 30, who went in front of the judges.

"The judges then chose 14 candidates." The competition's three judges are Villa Mamas managing director Roaya Saleh, Jaffari Consultants (Jafcon) chief executive Dr Akbar Jaffari and Tadhamon Capital chief executive and board member Waleed Rashdan.

The show airs every Saturday at 9.30pm on Bahrain TV or on YouTube at www.youtube.com/user/studiomastertv.  

"Each mission is about a new topic," explained Al Shaikh. "For instance, one is about contracts, one about budgeting and there's also a charity aspect.

"The winning team is safe, but throughout the show we reorder the teams if it's necessary.

"We've already filmed nine episodes and the tenth and final episode will be aired live a week before Ramadan."

He said the second season focused on entrepreneurship instead of employment because they believed it was vital to the economy.

"We have had a great response from the participants - some have even resigned from their jobs in order to fully be part of the show and give it their 100 per cent," he said.

"We have even given them missions outside of Bahrain, and flew them to another GCC country in order to be close to the market.

"They had to take something local and market it and sell it there."

He added that the show had already seen a successful business.

"For one of our missions, a team took BD12 and within four days managed to make BD547 profit," he said.

"We had an investor who immediately came and bought the business."

Dr Jaffari said the show has proven that Bahrain should focus on creating more opportunities for talented young Bahrainis.

"It's new because it discovers ability in these participants," he told the GDN. "They went well beyond our expectations.

"There is a generation rising who might be perceived as being cool and merry, but there is also seriousness and intelligence within them.

"The hard work and intelligence is what I saw the most, and they make us hopeful about the future.

"It's a letter to the society and the government - the generation is better than the one prior to it by several levels. We have to take care of them.

"We need more programmes like this produced because we have proved there are talents.

"We are in need of opening up more opportunities for them," he added.-TradeArabia News Service




Tags: Bahrain | Reality TV |

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