The 24th ENCATC Annual Conference took place in Valencia, Spain, from 57 October, 2016. The event brought together about 160 academics, researchers and professionals from the cultural sector, policy makers, artists and students from over 30 countries. And with a more focused and application oriented program their debates about the new paradigm needed for cultural management and policy to face todays risk societies could have in fact been very fruitful and inspiring.

"Introduction to International Arts Management" deals with the reactions of arts managers in more than 45 countries around the world to globalization and illustrates how arts organizations strive to internationalize not only to increase competitiveness, but also to reach out to an increasingly diverse audience and bring the potential and talent that is inherent in this diversity to the forefront.

In this series, I introduce a selection of neglected aspects and competencies from my book The A to Z of Arts Management. This chapter is about the uncertainty and challenge of running an arts company.

BBC Advertising just published an international in-depth report on millennials and the misconceptions surrounding this highly sought after generation. By conducting over 14,000 interviews across 31 countries and seven markets Australia, Germany, USA, Canada, India, Singapore and South Africa the report's findings make it easier for marketers in cultural institutions to target the most attractive and commercially receptive segment within that group.

In this series, I introduce a selection of neglected aspects and competencies from my book The A to Z of Arts Management. This chapter is about love for ones job and why it is important to be more open to the desires and needs of the people you work with and for.

In this article, I hope to give you some insights in how developing empathy for others will help you lead your staff in such a way that you'll be able to better meet the uncertainty and challenge of running an arts company.

Jeremie Gluckman spoke with the cultural managers working with or within arts enterprises in the U.S. and China. These leaders are all using the internet to engage local communities and share stories with the world. All the while, they are wrestling with challenges related to representation when contributing to the sea of messages, information, and images online. They are also equipped with an awareness of skewed access.

In this article, as I hop on a plane to fly to Europe to escape Melbournes winter cold, I will recommend the rejuvenating effects of holidays for both you and your staff.

Is well-intentioned the same as well done? With the concept of effective altruism, William MacAskill presents criteria to assess the work of non-profit organizations and make them more effective. His unusual but sound approaches can also be applied to the field of arts and culture. At the same time, MacAskill's book is a practical and intuitive guideline for facilities, staff workers and supporters of non-profit cultural work.

The Open Society Institute Assistance Foundation in Tajikistan is about to launch a new MA program in Arts Management in Dushanbe, in partnership with four local universities. This will be the first program of that kind in the region of Central Asia. The program needs a solid backup by methodological materials on diverse subject matters. Therefore the coordinators plan to open a Resource Centre for Arts Management (both online and offline), to be managed by the renowned nonprofit organization Dushanbe Art Ground. Thus, they kindly ask for donations of materials to the new center - publications, books, documents and so on.

The French sociologist and political scientist Vincent Dubois' book Culture as a Vocation deals with the central questions concerning career decisions in cultural management: When and where had this comparatively young job profile its origin? Who aims for such a career today and which are the social and personal factors that influence this decision? With his answers Dubois lays the foundation for a yet strongly neglected field.

The 23rd ENCATC on The Ecology of Culture: Community Engagement, Co-Creation, Cross-Fertilization took place in the city of Lecce in South Italy in October 2015. It brought together international researchers, policy makers, culture professionals and students in what turned out to be a very fruitful, lively and by no means exclusively European discussion forum. Academics, however, still dominated the event, with only few artist and cultural entrepreneurs present. It is certainly a matter of communication and cultural as well as political infrastructures to encourage them to get more involved, rather than staying the passive object of research.

The research topic of public participation in arts and culture is garnering ever-increasing international attention. A recent contribution to the international literature in this field is the German Handbuch Kulturpublikum, edited by Patrick Glogner-Pilz and Patrick S. Foehl (Handbook of Cultural Audiences. Research questions and findings). Comprised of chapters by 24 leading German scholars, this innovative resource provides a veritable encyclopedia of insight into the contemporary state of theory, methods, and practice as well as emerging international approaches to the field, thus offering the reader deep insight into what is a uniquely German scholarly lens.

The worldwide demand for qualified personnel in cultural institutions is great, yet the opportunities for advanced training are limited. For that reason, Goethe-Institut started in 2015 its international MOOC Managing the Arts. This review may give you some impressions.

Goethe Institut's first International Forum took place October 26 - November 6 in Munich, Germany. It brought together cultural experts from different regions of the world and different cultural sectors for a two-week intensive exchange phase. During this time, the participants got the opportunity to discuss current issues of cultural management, policy and administration. The global issues, ideas and skills brought forward during the forum reflect the opportunities and needs on professional competencies in the arts sector.

NCAR, the U.S. National Center for Arts Research, provides evidence-based insights into the national arts and cultural community. NCAR wants to enable their leaders to use data strategically to overcome challenges, transform their institutions in a sustainable way and increase impact. Marla Teyolia, Associate Director at NCAR, shows in this introduction that the research methods and tools provided by NCAR can be helpful for every arts leader to measure and improve the work of her organization, even if not situated in the U.S.

Still, information gaps exist. For instance, relevant, up-to-date and publicly accessible online information on arts and culture and their professional management can still prove hard to find for some regions and countries. Anupama Sekhar presented culture360.asef.org, an online portal on arts and culture focusing on Asia and Europe to address this knowledge gap, at the ENCATC Annual Conference 2014.

Egypt has a vibrant, internationally inspired independent scene with dedicated employees. In contrast, the traditional culture is financially shabbily treated and reglemented by the state. In the light of censorship, centralization and a lack of professionalism in cultural management the cultural sector could hardly make any impact on its content. The Goethe-Institut wants to change that with specialized and adequate trainings.

SIETAR is one of the largest association of specialists who research and teach the skills necessary to develop a diverse, participatory environment, and help people to operate professionally in it. The aim of its last conference, which took place from May 21st to 23rd in Valencia, Spain, was to broach the issue of the interfaces and cultures of arts, economy, society, policy, and education to reshape intercultural discourses and question current cultural paradigms. 350 interculturalists left the Congress with a bag full of inspiring ideas.

The German arts management professor Birgit Mandel visited two arts management programs in the USA and attended the main conference of AAAE, the Association for Arts Administration Educators at Universities and Colleges, that took place April 16-18, 2015 in Portland. There, she realized several aspects of managing arts that contradict the European presumption of the arts sector in the US.