Across Europe, cities are seeking to promote new cultural and economic activities that can create growth and employment, while supporting diversity, tolerance and innovation. Inspiring efforts to build "creative" cities need sound and specialized expertise within the audiovisual sector especially when fund raising becomes more and more competitive.

Creating growth, employment and improving a city's visibility at the same time requires new and powerful strategies, which maximise the links between the cultural and economic spheres and provide solid cost-benefit ratios. In the era of digitalisation, the audiovisual industry is a growing and innovative sector with the potential to contribute significantly to local economic and social development but only if its development is supported correctly.

ECORYS, in partnership with leading experts from the audiovisual industry, is designing a training course which provides in-depth information about tools and funding and ways how to support cultural and economic activities in cities, based on sound analysis and practical insights from across Europe.

This training programme will take place early 2010 in Brussels/Rotterdam and Berlin.