The conclusion reached by managers and executives of the industry is that Spain has achieved a higher growth than the rest of the countries in Europe and has been winning its fierce battle due to its condition of being a bridge between America and the old continent up to the point of becoming one of the most important seats of the audio-visual world market. From now onwards, that is, throughout the following months, ONLY TELENOVELAS will present what the protagonists of the sector say. In this issue, we invite the host country which is also a commercializing factor on a world-wide scale.

	.Francesc Escribano

Francesc Escribano, director of TV3 in Catalonia
Francesc Escribano, director of TV3 in Catalonia
“For the audio-visual sector, the summit meeting is significant. Fiction and telenovelas play an essential role in the development of the sector and on the part of TV3, we have the intention of becoming the best hosts and to be able to exchange visions on business in order to  show our production to the world and to contribute to the indispensable unit of analysis this product requires for its projection and final destiny. We hope  guests will not get so much amused with the beauty and attractions  kept in  this cosmopolitan city which is awaiting the 2nd Summit with enthusiasm”, states Francesc Escribano, Director at TV3 of Catalonia in Barcelona and Associated Lecturer of Audio-visual Communication at Universidad Autónoma of Barcelona.

	José Ramón Colom

José Ramón Colom
“It will be in September when Barcelona welcomes the Second world Summit of Telenovelas. It will do it with much satisfaction and for many reasons since it was in Barcelona and to be more exact, in the studios of Hospitalet y Esplugues where Televisión Española produced the first telenovelas in the 70s. Los Tres Mosqueteros, El Conde de Montecristo and many others were shot here. Later on, these telenovelas disappeared from the programming schemes till TV3, television from Catalonia, recovered them in these same studios. Then they were undertaken as a serialized product with more than 100 episodes. Poble Nou and El Cor de la Ciutat are some of these titles. In Barcelona,  we will welcome all those who know about television and telenovelas because we want to continue in this industry and with these productions”, says José Ramón Colom Esmatges, journalist and manager with  a long career and recognition in the television of this country. He was director at Televisión Española and General Director in Programming and Contents at Via Digital (2000-2002). At present he is President at Sagrera TV, television production company based, in Barcelona.

	Lorenzo Vilches

Lorenzo Vilches
“Here in Barcelona there was a very important movie industry which has declined but the experience still persists as well as the effort of the companies striving to recover that sector. Barcelona has got a knowledge of the multimedia and cultural issues which became noticeable during the Olympic Games. The big publishing houses are found here and it has been a good telenovela laboratory where other Spanish channels, even the biggest ones, found inspiration for their productions. We observe a recovery in a very short time foretelling that investment  will increase in movies as well as in television to strengthen the industry and co-production. With that perspective, it is act of justice to carry out this important Summit in Barcelona.” Lorenzo Vilches is Director for the Master of Movie and TV writing at the University of Barcelona and Director of the Fiction and Telenovela Observatory in Europe.

	José Escalante

José Escalante
“Being the cultural vanguard capital since the beginning of the 20th century, Barcelona is one of the most dynamic migration places in the European Union. It means this magnificent city will make the perfect seat for TV managers and executives from all over the world. “Barcelona is an excellent meeting point for its closeness to Cannes, where MIPCOM will be taking place a couple of days later. I believe that Barcelona is the correct choice. Friends and colleagues from around the world will be sharing opinions in this event”, José Escalante, Vice President and General Manager of Coral International.

And what do the advertisers say ?     “For us who are interested in the telenovela as a commercial product it was important to know under which parameters the telenovela is being worked out. We observed in this summit that there is a great interest to improve quality and that it is essential to make it a best seller, particularly in the demanding European countries, especially in the English-speaking ones. Fortunately, I have learnt a lot in this summit, since each time, more clients are interested in negotiating this kind of product”, Octavio Bocchino, Regional Director of Media at Universal Mccann, when the First Summit in Miami, in April 2003 came to an end.