What we call a “kick-off meeting” is one of the major steps in a European-scaled project in that participants thereby lay the foundation for a two-and-a-half-year partnership. During these two days and three nights we were sated with enriching conversations and interactions but sleep-deprived, because chance had it that our meeting took place exactly at the same time as the Scopitone digital arts festival… which was a blessing for us and our partners from Croatia, Estonia, Italy and Great Britain!
You would think that bringing 5 European partners together to carry out a project is no big deal, but it implies bringing together 5 different cultures, 5 different personalities and 5 different worldviews. So this is no small challenge, since we must invent a common language in English based on common definitions and a common method… Keeping in mind that what matters the most is to build a close-knit team.
During two days we went from one meeting to the next in order to address such issues as the project itself, the method, the budget, the procedures, culture-oriented entrepreneurship, up-and-coming musicians and their status. We also offered our partners food for thought on their favorite topics by setting up meetings with representatives of our local creative and cultural industries: Audencia, Yodel, le Voyage à Nantes, Atlangames, Algam, Atlantic 2.0. We had very busy days… and nights! Indeed our food-loving night-owls city trip all around Nantes was spiced up with concerts and events hosted as part of the Scopitone festival.
It took us a month solid to recover from these quite eventful two days and three nights… But the damage was done: a team had come to life and was on its way to implement and experiment with European Music Incubator.
