One year after its launch, Europe in Synch returns home: it was at the Portuguese Westway Lab, where the original idea for the initiative was conceived. This year the EinS Workshop, as usual a day-long closed session, focussed on the Portuguese film and television sector and its peculiarities.

The open call for participation of the music side brought together a small and most engaged class of regional and international publishers/labels, artists/composers and synch managers with two experts from the Portuguese synch sector. However, to get the ball rolling, the room was treated to a well-informed and highly inspiring round-table chat with renowned Portuguese film director and producer Rodrigo Areias, learning about his personal history and attitude with film and music and his professional views on the subject.

After that, the floor belonged to the Catalysts. Protocoled live by designated EinS graphic scribe Peter Morey (UK), in-depth presentations by Professor Marta Ramalho, who is an Intellectual Property Consultant for the audio-visual sector and a rights clearance expert, and post-production manager Marta Lemos (Terratreme Productions) addressed at length the legal aspects of the Portuguese rights and synch landscape, and portrayed the structures, the work-flows and the decision processes from real-life perspectives.

Together with the participants, the challenges of the day-to-day work and the opportunities in collaborations were identified and discussed and concrete networking ensued on the spot.

Again, the EinS 6-hour session-format turned rather into an open-end day, all participating professionals attesting an outstanding and unique opportunity to learn and understand, to expand both competence and networks. The cultural and political aspects of the findings – structures, outreach, artistic and rights representation, fundings etc. – will be analysed for further addressing.

On the next day’s EinS panel, Head of the Academy Markus Linde and Catalyst Marta Lomes presented the findings to the conference public, making a point of turning to the music sector with a prompt for more initiative towards professionalisation and engaged structures. The finished graphic protocol on the wall, an EinS trade-mark by now, was referred to by all following sessions.