In the framework of the CHIMERA Project (Innovative Cultural and Creative Clusters in the Mediterranean Area), the workshop “Cluster Building for the Audiovisual Sector in Friuli Venezia Giulia Autonomous Region: what to focus on ” was held on 20 September in Trieste. The workshop saw the confrontation of Marine Haverland, visual advisor of the Brussels region’s audiovisual brand “screen.brussels”, with the main actors in the FVG autonomous region audiovisual sector. For the regional audiovisual industry, it was a valuable exchange and comparison opportunity with a reality that represents a true audiovisual ecosystem. “screen.brussels” is in fact the trademark of an audiovisual ecosystem consisting of four different components: a Film Commission (screen.brussels Film Commission), a cluster (screen.brussels cluster), an audiovisual fund supporting co-productions (screen.brussels fund) and a financing line dedicated to regional business in the audiovisual sector (screen.brussels business).

The creation of an audiovisual cluster in Friuli Venezia Giulia is a Chimera project and Regional Directorate for Culture, Sport and Solidarity’s objective and screen.brussels, an audiovisual ecosystem composed of structures present (with similarities and differences) in our region with the significant exception of the cluster, represents an advanced stage, a frontrunner compared to the present regional sectoral context. After Marine Haverland described the functions, composition and functionalities of screen.brussels and its economic-institutional and sectoral context, a series of questions from regional stakeholders followed. The questions concerned: the various stages of the ecosystem development; the role of institutions; the initial mapping of the needs of audiovisual companies; the relations between different cultural and creative sectors in the experience of screen.brussels and the activation of relationships with the “traditional” production sectors and services; the identification and formation of professional profiles.

The responses given by the screen.brussels representative enabled the regional stakeholder to identify a number of gaps in the regional sectoral context and a series of proposals to address and overcome such gaps, in order to trigger the establishment of an (eco) system, i.e. a functionally structured and integrated entity, starting with the establishment of a regional audiovisual cluster.