South Africa gets snapping in time for 2010

Core Group, Value Added Distributor (VAD) of Apple products in South Africa, are calling all South Africans to show what they love most about the country. With the world waiting to visit South Africa next year, there is an opportunity to celebrate the country, heading into 2010.

“There are so many reasons to feel good about South Africa! The rainbow nation is a truly hospitable nation, with diverse cultures and great pride in the country. As citizens we have the obligation of being ambassadors for our great nation and a responsibility to share our enthusiasm with the rest of the world,” says RJ van Spaandonk, Executive Director of the Core Group.

“In an era influenced by user-generated content, it has become easier to share information and content across borders. Holiday albums and family events are frequently being posted on social media applications like Facebook, YouTube and Flickr. Apple has the content-generation tools and software to take this movement to the next level, enabling South Africans to easily organise, edit and share content through software such as iPhoto and iMovie.

With this in mind and the world about to pay us a timely visit, the Core Group is embarking on a campaign ahead of 2010 called A to Z of ZA to collectively showcase the best to be seen and done in South Africa”, adds van Spaandonk.

The first phase of the campaign invites individuals to submit existing photos or home movies that have been caught on a cell phone, camera, iPhone or iPod around South Africa. These should be images that demonstrate the wonders of South Africa to the world, from the eyes of South Africans, and can range from the exquisite to the humorous. The content is arranged around the A to Z offerings of South Africa, where entrants can utilize all 26 letters of the alphabet or focus on one specific letter. For example, a could represent aloe, b for braai, c for Cape Town etc.

Once entrants have collected or taken their pictures or video content, they are encouraged to use iPhoto or iMovie to edit and share this content. With iPhoto, it is simple to create beautiful photo book layouts that can then be bound into professionally published books. For those who do have access to their own Mac, they can bring digital copies of their photos to participating stores which include: iStores, Digicape, Project 3 and selected Incredible Connection and Dion Wired stores countrywide. The Apple experts can help with how to use the iPhoto software and to assist in creating a compelling photo book or video clip.

This competition is open to anyone with photo and video content that they desire to see compiled into a feel good story about what to do and see in SA. Video content will be entered digitally, however, entrants can choose whether to simply enter their digital version of their photo book or get the photo book printed. Printing of these photo books starts from R299.

The entire A to Z of ZA campaign will run until the end of June next year, but the first phase, which kicked off in October, invites South Africans to submit digital versions of their photo books, by the end of December. Successful entrants could be 1 of 50 winners of iPod nano’s for best photo book or video. More information and top pictures and video content will be published and bound and also included in a dedicated website, www.a2zofza.co.za.

“One of Core Group’s visions with this project is that ordinary South Africans will use their experiences of their own country as a way of spurring tourism and inspiring the world to pay us (another) visit. Let’s get creating and show the world the best bits of being South African”, says van Spaandonk.