Patty Geneste, President of Frapa, reveals the keys to the internationalization of formats

About 50 professionals in the sector will attend the Masterclass that the director of the prestigious Absolutely Independent producer will teach at the EITB headquarters in Bilbao.

The creation of television formats that have real possibilities for access to the international market will be the axis of the Masterclass that will teach next Tuesday at Bilbao Patty Geneste, president of the Association for the Recognition and Protection of Formats (Frapa) and director of the Absolutely Independent producer, one of the most prestigious worldwide. The presence in Euskadi of Patty Geneste, who has aroused the interest of the main Basque producers, has been possible thanks to the work carried out by the promoters of Innova Audiovisual, which this year celebrates its second edition.

In this sense, the Geneste Seminar is one more step in the consolidation of an initiative, promoted by Eike-Cluster Audiovisual of Euskadi in collaboration with EITB, designed to promote the production of pilot programs through public-private collaborative formulas. Thus, the objective of this Masterclass is that all potential participants can have the key elements to create, from the beginning, an original and "salable" format in any market in the world.

So far, almost 50 professionals from the Basque audiovisual sector, including representatives of the main producers of Euskadi, have confirmed their assistance to the event. The high assistance shows interest in the contents of the Masterclass, aimed at incorporating from its origin the "internationalizing" factor in audiovisual projects.

Likewise, the Patty Genest conference links directly with the mission recently held in the Netherlands by Eiken, and in which a dozen Basque companies participated. Both initiatives affect the importance of internationalization, as well as the weight currently occupied by the audiovisual industry of the Netherlands in the international sector. According to the latest sector studies, the "format industry" is one of the sectors with the greatest perspective of growth and the Netherlands, specifically, is currently one of the world's maximum exponent.

The Masterclass will be held on March 19 entirely in the EITB multibox room, in Bilbao in the morning and afternoon. Between 9 and 2, the President of Frapa will offer the keys to “successfully sell in international markets”, while in the afternoon, from 3 to 6 a workshop on “how to negotiate and write the contract” will be held. This initiative has the support of the European Social Fund, through the Bilbao Ekintza company.

Second edition underway

Patty Geneste Masterclass has, among its fundamental objectives, to support producers who intend to participate in the second edition of Innova Audiovisual. In this sense, the deadline to take part in the initiative will be open until the beginning of May.

As in the previous edition, the ideas will be analyzed by an international jury, which will select the best projects based on their possibilities for sale to external markets, for its production and subsequent issuance by ETB. According to participation bases, open to all audiovisual producers based in the Basque Country, finalist projects will be issued in ETB special programs throughout September.

Likewise, the initiative will be presented in two of the world's main markets, Mipformat and Mipcom, through the audiovisual basque stand in these markets that are held in Cannes, which ensures the international dissemination of the project.