TAV Airports has presented its 2008 Annual Report, prepared as digital media, to the accompaniment of Kerem Görsev’s music

The musical journey of financial figures

It has become a tradition for TAV Airports to reflect the innovative spirit in its makeup onto its activity reports. Following the award winning success of the 2007 Activity Report, presented together with Buket Uzuner’s novel, Istanbullular, this time financial figures have been presented with music. For the 2008 Activity Report, prepared in digital media around the concept of “Meetings,” Kerem Görsev has composed seven pieces, dedicated to the terminals operated by TAV Airports within Turkey and in other countries and cities.

TAV Airports Holding has carried the creative thinking behind the 2007 Annual Report into the 2008 Annual Report. Last year Buket Uzuner’s novel, Istanbullular, was quoted and numbers were blended with literature. TAV Airports’ 2007 Annual Report won the Silver Award in the Traditional Creativity Awards Competition held in the USA and the “Best Design in Annual Reports” in the “Graphic Products Competition” organized by the Turkish Society of Graphic Design and was reprinted due to the great interest it elicited

In the 2008 Annual Report--prepared in great detail in digital media--one can click on the relevant heading and examine the company’s financial figures while experiencing the joy of listening to music composed by famous renowned jazz composer Görsev. For example, when the Ankara Esenboğa Airport is clicked, one hears the piece composed for Ankara.

The digital content approach has achieved savings in paper consumption by reducing the dimensions of the book containing the report summary to a CD box and by requiring a smaller number of pages, thereby also constituting an example of the environmental awareness of TAV Airports.

Baki Kara Finar Corporate Agency, Chairman

Annual reports are the most boring documents in the world. No one wishes to read an annual report from beginning to end. It is considered to be a success if the target group even opens the report and glances through it. According to a poll conducted abroad, high level managers dedicate 20 seconds to reading an annual report. That is why it is important to present figures not only correctly but also creatively; because you are conveying not only figures but also the messages of the organization to the target group. Up to the courageous approach of TAV Airports, we used to limit creativity to the design and dimensions of the report booklet. TAV has brought a new dimension and said, “This dimension is called art.” In this kind of work, the difference lies in the organization rather than in the agency. TAV Airports brought an innovation to this field that attracted the attention of all other organizations and made them say, “We want to take on an approach like this as well.” From our point of view, TAV Airports is the organization with the most innovative instincts.

Sıla Usta Corporate Communications Senior Specialist TAV Airports Holding

Corporate Communications Expert Sıla Usta follows the intensive traffic within the preparation process of annual reports closely and leads them on behalf of her unit. Every phase of the report needs to be read and approved of by all relevant units. Amendments need to be sent to the agency and then the text needs to be submitted once again for approval. Sıla Usta works one-on-one with the Department of Investor Relations on the content and on the approval process. Sıla Usta described the preparation of the 2008 Annual Report as follows: “Once the presentation concept for this year’s Annual Report was established, the headings of the report and the content were compiled from the various relevant departments and the report was prepared under the supervision of the Department of Investor Relations. The final versions of the texts were achieved as a result of comments by Directors, General Managers and the Department of Investors’ Relations. Once the text underwent amendments a few times during the approval process, a model of the Annual Report was prepared and, following final checks on the design and text, the printing process began. The Annual Report, on which we began working in January 2008, was presented publicly on 25 May 2009, with a concert by Kerem Görsev.”

The jazz artist Kerem Görsev shared with TAV the story behind the music he composed for the TAV Airports Holding 2008 Annual Report. What did you think when you were asked to compose music for an annual report? KEREM GÖRSEV: Jazz is the music of surprises; it enjoys the unexpected. The TAV project was an unexpected surprise and it was beautiful because of its integration with music. For me, jazz is a mechanism for fantasizing. Airports too, in a sense, are like doors through which people pass towards their dreams, through which they hope to achieve their aspirations. I think that it was this connection that persuaded me to do this project and that excited me. When Baki Kara, Chairman of Finar Corporate Agency, called me and said that they wanted me to compose music for seven airports operated by TAV Airports, I thought that it was a very creative project. This is also a project that only courageous people can bring to life.

Moreover, we must not forget that this activity report is actually a digital report. People will be able to listen to this in 10 years’ time too, by attaching it to their PCs, or most probably to any electronic or web-based device. We are talking about a work that will not be thrown away and that can be preserved as a collection piece. How would you define your own “sound?” K.G: I tell stories of what I experience with acoustic instruments, using the mainstream sound of the 1950s and 60s and elements of American harmony and rhythm. We could call it an “acoustic touch of the Mediterranean.” How did the music you composed for TAV Airports come into being? K.G:Every piece of music has its own story. For example, if you listen to “Izmir,” you will feel the courage and the wide horizons of Izmir. “Alanya” will remind us of our Mediterranean aspect and “Istanbul” will reflect chaos, fusion and history. The music for Tunisia will convey vivacity, the intensity of the Mediterranean people and the spirit of Africa. In every piece you listen to, you will find traces of that city and of the people of that country. I have poured my sentiments regarding those cities and countries into musical notes. Following the composition process, my friends at the Kerem Görsev Quintet and I rehearsed and then we made the studio recording. What kind of a sentimental bond did you establish with these seven locations for which you composed music? K.G: : Istanbul is the city I am in love with and the city where I live. Ankara is where I performed my military service in the years 1981-82. Izmir is the city I love the most after Istanbul. I find the enthusiasm of the Mediterranean people very inspiring and Alanya is therefore very meaningful for me. The airports and the cities are the heroes of this album. In order to establish a sentimental bond, it is necessary to know about those cities’ fabrics and histories. For example, “Ankara” is composed in a jazz-waltz style, in reference to Atatürk having danced the waltz in Ankara. “Istanbul,” on the other hand, reminds one of fusion, chaos, history and migrations. I was inspired by history when I composed the pieces for Georgia, Macedonia and Tunisia.