"Creative Europe", the Commission's proposal for its future funding programme for the cultural and creative sectors for the period 2014-2020, proposes an important new focus on audience development in order to foster long-term audiences for European cultural works. The European Commission will, therefore, organise a conference on 16-17 October in Brussels which will provide inspirational examples of audience development by cultural organisations and foster European exchange of practice on audience development strategies. Audience development is a strategic, dynamic and interactive process of making the arts accessible. It aims to engage individuals and communities in experiencing, enjoying, participating in and valuing the arts through various means, including arts marketing and synergies with customer relations. Audience development embraces the long-term process of attracting and engaging diverse and new audiences, as well as retaining them by establishing and maintaining strategic, dynamic and sustainable relationships. It therefore has both a widening sense (bringing new audiences) and a deepening sense (improving experience and deepening engagement of the current audience). As well as widening access to culture, audience development is complementary to cultural education in schools through activities conducted directly by cultural operators. It has cultural, social and economic benefits: • Cultural in the sense that it helps European works reach larger audiences, fosters meaningful engagement and helps to stimulate understanding of more complex works; • Social in that it is often about reaching young people and the disadvantaged, which has benefits for social inclusion; • And economic in that developing audiences can also have the benefit of increased or new revenue streams. Follow DG EAC’s website for more information on how to register.