Twen­ty years from the start of the tele­vi­sion sta­tion, few sto­ries cap­ture the heart and soul of the net­work like that of Vene­ta Ven­tour.

A ded­i­cat­ed mem­ber of the CNC3 fam­i­ly since Au­gust 2015 — be­fore the sta­tion even went on air — Ven­tour, the com­pa­ny’s Busi­ness De­vel­op­ment Man­ag­er, has wit­nessed first­hand the evo­lu­tion of one of Trinidad and To­ba­go’s lead­ing broad­cast­ers.

Her jour­ney is one de­fined by pas­sion, re­silience, and an un­wa­ver­ing com­mit­ment to serv­ing the na­tion.

From the ear­li­est days, Ven­tour recog­nised that CNC3 was more than a tele­vi­sion sta­tion.

“From the mo­ment I walked in, I felt that this was a place where we could make a dif­fer­ence,” she re­calls. “We were build­ing some­thing new, some­thing mean­ing­ful, and I want­ed to be part of it.”

Mo­ments That De­fine a Ca­reer

Among her many ex­pe­ri­ences at CNC3, two stand out as defin­ing mo­ments. The first oc­curred at the out­set of the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic, when schools were sud­den­ly closed. CNC3 re­spond­ed with ex­tra­or­di­nary speed, pro­duc­ing an SEA tele­vi­sion se­ries in just a sin­gle week­end and con­tin­u­ing to de­liv­er new episodes dai­ly for sev­er­al months.

“The let­ters from par­ents were heart­felt, and the feed­back from stu­dents was over­whelm­ing,” Ven­tour says.

“See­ing how our work kept chil­dren en­gaged dur­ing such un­cer­tain times was in­cred­i­bly re­ward­ing. When the se­ries end­ed as schools tran­si­tioned to vir­tu­al learn­ing, the mes­sages we re­ceived re­flect­ed gen­uine sad­ness — a re­minder of the im­pact we were mak­ing.”

The sec­ond mo­ment came dur­ing the dev­as­tat­ing floods of 2018, which left Green­vale among the hard­est-hit com­mu­ni­ties. Ven­tour re­calls the courage and re­source­ful­ness of the CNC3 teams as they nav­i­gat­ed treach­er­ous con­di­tions to de­liv­er com­pre­hen­sive cov­er­age.

“What struck me most was wit­ness­ing the best of our coun­try come to­geth­er,” she notes.

“Peo­ple ral­lied to sup­port fam­i­lies who had lost every­thing. I have nev­er felt a deep­er love for my coun­try or for CNC3 than I did in those mo­ments.”

The CNC3 Dif­fer­ence

For Ven­tour, what sets CNC3 apart is sim­ple yet pro­found: its peo­ple. Across every de­part­ment — on air, in Traf­fic, Op­er­a­tions, En­gi­neer­ing, Cre­ative, ISS, Fi­nance, Pro­gram­ming, Sup­port Ser­vices, HR, and Sales — in­di­vid­u­als con­sis­tent­ly demon­strate ded­i­ca­tion, com­pas­sion, and ex­cel­lence.

“Our teams will­ing­ly make sac­ri­fices, whether that means long days, late nights, or skip­ping the com­fort of a bed at home,” she says with a smile, re­call­ing the oft-heard news­room quip, “Your bed wet or what?” “That ethos of go­ing above and be­yond is deeply in­grained in our cul­ture.”

Ven­tour pays trib­ute not on­ly to her col­leagues on screen but to the “re­mark­able caped cru­saders” be­hind the scenes, whose tire­less work en­sures that every broad­cast runs smooth­ly.

“It’s the col­lec­tive ef­fort of these in­cred­i­ble in­di­vid­u­als that has al­lowed CNC3 to con­sis­tent­ly de­liv­er the best to our view­ers,” she af­firms.

Look­ing Ahead

As the net­work cel­e­brates two decades of ex­cel­lence, Ven­tour en­vi­sions a fu­ture filled with growth and re­gion­al in­flu­ence. “I would love to see CNC3 ex­pand­ing through­out the Caribbean, be­com­ing the bench­mark for me­dia ex­cel­lence, and of­fer­ing plat­forms for lo­cal cre­atives to shine on the glob­al stage,” she says.

She al­so hopes to see the net­work play a more proac­tive role in so­cial and sus­tain­abil­i­ty ini­tia­tives, lever­ag­ing its in­flu­ence to fos­ter pos­i­tive change. “CNC3 has al­ways been about more than tele­vi­sion. It’s about peo­ple, com­mu­ni­ties, and cre­at­ing an im­pact,” she re­flects.

A Heart­felt Trib­ute

On the oc­ca­sion of CNC3’s 20th an­niver­sary, Vene­ta Ven­tour of­fers warm con­grat­u­la­tions: “Twen­ty years of out­stand­ing ser­vice is no small feat. Keep reach­ing for new heights.” Her words em­body the ethos of the net­work — a com­mit­ment to ex­cel­lence, a ded­i­ca­tion to com­mu­ni­ty, and a be­lief in the pow­er of me­dia to in­form, in­spire, and up­lift.

As CNC3 looks to the fu­ture, it does so with a team that has al­ready proven its re­silience, cre­ativ­i­ty, and ded­i­ca­tion. With mem­bers like Vene­ta Ven­tour, the next 20 years promise to be just as re­mark­able as the first.

Quick Facts: Vene­ta Ven­tour

Joined CNC3: Au­gust 2015 (be­fore the sta­tion went on air)

Role: Busi­ness De­vel­op­ment Man­ag­er

High­lights:

Led the pro­duc­tion of the SEA tele­vi­sion se­ries dur­ing the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic

Key cov­er­age dur­ing the 2018 Green­vale floods

What Sets CNC3 Apart: Ded­i­ca­tion and team­work of its peo­ple across all de­part­ments

Vi­sion for the Net­work: Ex­pand re­gion­al­ly, el­e­vate lo­cal cre­atives, and sup­port so­cial and sus­tain­abil­i­ty ini­tia­tives

Favourite Mem­o­ry: Wit­ness­ing CNC3’s teams serve the na­tion dur­ing crises

Mes­sage to the Net­work: “Keep reach­ing for new heights.”