Natural resources and the extraction of those resources is a challenging and risky initiative for any company. Not only are industry professionals faced with the economics and the geophysical aspects of the business, but they are also challenged with the social licensing and corporate social responsibilities associated with its publicly directed outreach and image.

From the economies of natural resources to employee diversification and global initiatives to expand resource agendas, the conversations can be complicated and typically to do not adhere to single and probable answers. Furthermore, many of these high-level conversations and dialogues happen behind closed doors with executive level managers and governmental bureaucracies.

RAW Talks, an international non-profit organization, is changing the delivery of these conversations into a publicly delivered platform. At www.rawtalks.org, you will find dozens of short interviews in video format with RAW Talks hosts asking some of the leading experts questions about how natural resource sectors work within economic, government, and public expectations.

The IMF portrays a sharp picture of the Africa coming out of the commodities boom: a continent split in two; Half resource-dependent, half not; The former doing poorly, the later rather well. Is this a reflection of lower commodity prices or is there more to it?

"The reason we are doing this is to channel that [the raw conversations] into the public," says Nicolas Di Boscio, the organization's Editor in Chief. "The timing of it was beautiful actually. When we recorded our first set of interviews in December 2016, it was all about coming out of the last cycle and how countries were dealing with the slump."

The host of most videos, Åsa Borssén, reflects on the beginnings of the series as well. "I think the main feedback is we've been waiting on the conversation being online so everyone can be part of it. Everyone can relate to the energy era so we try to make it uncomplicated and straight forward."

The team is guided by two principles. First, RAW Talks will remain rigorous in providing factual information, insight and thoughtful conversation. The second principle is the information style of the message. It will remain simple and understandable by everyone in a mobile space.

Listen to our entire conversation here, where you will find out more about RAW Talks, the challenges of launching the series, the engagement of a younger audience, and the direction in which the team wishes to take the dialogue.