Bom dia! And that’s where my Portuguese ends!
Today, I’m thrilled to take you on a journey to Rio de Janeiro for one of the most exciting events Materahub has ever attended. Senhoras e senhores, welcome to Rio2C, Latin America’s largest creativity gathering. With over 50,000 participants, this event is a vibrant mix of panels, workshops, and networking opportunities, bringing together worldwide industry leaders, creators, and innovators.
This year’s edition, the fifth in-person since COVID-19, had as a central theme The Age of Awareness, bringing the attention to the national Brazilian creative market, still enabling participants to delve into the latest international trends and fostering the development of new global connections.
Featuring over 500 panels, designed to promote the convergence of diverse fields such as film/TV, music, innovation, technology, games, publishing, science, fashion, sustainability, and sports, the event culminated in a grand finale on the weekend of June 8-9 with Festivalia, which attracted a large crowd of music and tech enthusiasts.
and TADA! the next time someone tells you that European projects are pointless, direct them to this article because what follows is truly inspiring.
The theme of artificial intelligence dominated nearly every day of the conference and, compared to European discussion, the discourse here seemed slightly behind as the focus remains primarily on how technology can support the cultural and creative sectors and the ethical implications beyond it. While Europe has already started addressing more advanced topics such as AI-driven innovation and intellectual property rights, the conversations in Brazil are still deeply rooted in understanding the ethical implications and exploring how AI can enhance and support artistic and cultural expressions.
Now, you might correctly be wondering why Luigi Martulli and myself, Paolo Montemurro, respectively President and Director of Materahub, were invited to Brazil. Well, let me explain it.
Materahub was part of the delegation of Basilicata Creativa called to speak at the panel Opportunity for Connections between Brazil and Europe and in particular to showcase the European funded initiative CREATHRIV-EU, Euroclusters for Thriving Creative and Cultural Industries.
This project came to the attention of the event organisers for the interesting system of correlation it builds among various EU creative and cultural clusters, focused on strengthening existing cross-sectoral value chains and developing new ones. The project de facto designed the pandemic, which severely disrupted the ongoing development dynamics supposed to drive cultural and creative industries toward contributing to the green and digital transition and the overall growth of the European Union.
Funded under the Single Market Programme, the projects brought together 5 existing EU clusters:
- Basilicata Creativa, of which Materahub is co-founder;
- the Baltic Film and Createch Cluster from Lithuania;
- Innoskart Digital Cluster from Hungary;
- Twist Cluster from Belgium;
- Corallia Gi-Cluster from Greece.
Through a combination of actions supported by cascade funding, including grants and awards, the CreaThriv-EU programme is designed to help cultural and creative SMEs achieve specific objectives such as enhancing resilience, initiating green and digital transitions, innovating, developing skills, and becoming more international by adopting a cluster-based approach.
A Packed Panel and a Strong Interest
From Basilicata to Brazil, our panel saw an unexpected turnout, highlighting the strong interest of local creative entrepreneurs in engaging with the European cultural landscape and there I understood why we were involved.
I have to admit, it took me a while to realize it.
However, as I strolled around the booths of startups and services, whose density compared to the European situation left me shaking for days, attended panels and workshops, it became clear to me that Brazil is looking towards the European cultural model.
Yes, the very one that we often criticize, which however results much broader and encompassing and that does not necessarily focus solely on revenues. Unfortunately, in such a fruitful and keen for connections context, it was truly a pity not to see anyone from the European Commission nor from European networks: a hand extended that Materahub was keen to grasp.