Ghent University Pauline Delaruelle Faculty of Arts and Philosophy Multilingual Business Communication Tutor: Prof. Dr. G. Jacobs Dissertation: MY INTERNSHIP AT THE ALTERNATIVE MANAGEMENT COMPANY KEREMOS 2009 - 2010 2 TABLE OF CONTENTS I. PREFACE 5 II. KEREMOS 6 A. The company 6 B. Short history 7 C. Structure 8 D. Corporate identity 9 1. Mission statement and vision 9 2. Strategy 9 E. Clients 9 F. Products 10 G. Competition and positioning 11 H. Conclusion 12 III. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK: INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION 13 A. Introduction and motivation 13 B. Culture 14 1. Attempt at definition 14 2. Different cultures 16 C. Culture and communication 17 1. Cultural differences 17 2. Cultural differences and communication 18 D. Intercultural communication 20 1. Definition 20 2. Approaches to intercultural communication 21 3. Barriers to intercultural communication 21 IV. CASE STUDY: INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION WITH THE TABII CONCERTS 24 A. Tabii concerts 24 1. Main idea and goals 24 2. First and second editions 25 3. Third and fourth editions 26 B. My contribution to the Tabii concerts 27 1. Communication vis à vis the Serbian community in Ghent 27 2. Communication in general 28 C. Other tasks during my internship 29 1. Press releases 29 2. Newsletters 29 3. Drawing up invoices and callsheets 30 4. ‘Culture 2007’: programme of the European Union 30 3 5. Transition to non-profit organisation for each band 30 D. Evaluation of my contribution 31 1. Main tasks: intercultural communication and the Tabii concerts 31 2. Additional tasks 31 V. FINAL CONCLUSION 32 A. Lessons learned professionally 32 B. Lessons learned personally 33 C. Link with Multilingual Business Communication 33 VI. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 35 VII. BIBLIOGRAPHY 36 VIII. APPENDIXES 38 A. Poster of first edition of the Tabii concerts 38 B. Poster of second edition of the Tabii concerts 39 C. Digital flyer of the third and fourth editions of the Tabii concerts 40 D. Mailing to organizations - Tabii concerts 41 E. Facebookmessage to all Keremos-friends 42 F. Press release - Tabii concerts 43 G. Press release – School Is Cool 44 H. Newsletter - Roadburg 45 4 I. PREFACE I have always been interested in music and the music industry in particular. That is the main reason why I wanted to do a second internship in the music industry. During my third bachelor year of Communication Sciences at the Free University of Brussels, I already did an internship in the music industry at Poppunt for three months. Poppunt is a non-profit organisation that aims at helping and guiding beginning musicians, producers and dj’s. It does this by organizing different events, information sessions and so on. My tasks at Poppunt contained mainly production and organization aspects of the first edition of ‘Play and Produce’: an event for producers and dj’s that took place at the Vooruit in Ghent. I knew from the beginning that my second internship would again be in the music industry based on my former experience and passion for music. I applied and got accepted by two different companies: Boomtown, the festival in Ghent during the Gentse Feesten and Keremos, an alternative management company of music artists and bands. I knew I would really like the internship at Boomtown because that would involve a lot of production work in the run-up to the festival. However, as I already built up some ‘experience’ in this field, I was more anxious to get to know a different side of the music industry. That is why I chose Keremos. I wanted to find out if I liked the management side of the music industry as much as the production side. This dissertation is a combination of both a detailed report of my internship at Keremos and a literary study about intercultural communication. The first chapter consists of a detailed discussion of the company Keremos itself. More specifically, attention will be given to a short history of the company, the corporate identity, clients, products and the competition and positioning of Keremos. The second chapter summarizes my reading on intercultural communication which contextualizes the more practical ensuing chapter. A close look is taken at the concepts of culture and intercultural communication, mostly based on the work of Jandt (2004) and Claes and Gerritsen (2007). This theoretical framework is linked to the case study discussed in the third chapter. Here we take a closer look at my main task during my internship: intercultural communication for the Tabii concerts. In a first paragraph, the goals and ideas behind the Tabii concerts are explained in detail. In addition, the four editions are discussed separately. The second paragraph of that chapter deals with my contribution to the Tabii concerts. I was responsible for finding the right ways and channels to reach the Serbian population in Ghent and inform them about the third and fourth editions of the Tabii concerts. To end this chapter, I evaluate my contribution and deal with my additional tasks during my internship. In the final chapter, I take a closer look at the things that I have learned from my time with Keremos, both professionally as personally. Furthermore, the link with the programme of Multilingual Business Communication is made. 5 II. KEREMOS A. The company Keremos is a non-profit alternative management company of young pop and rock bands and is located in Ghent. Currently they manage ten different bands: Arquettes, Kawada, Rianto Delrue, Roadburg, The Galacticos, Team William, Steak Number Eight, Absynthe Minded, School Is Cool and Maya’s Moving Castle. Since very recently almost every band has had its own non-profit structure (vzw), with Keremos taking part in the general meeting and the executive committee. The main reason behind this structure is for every band to become the owner and to have the rights to everything that they make (music, music videos, etc.) and, more importantly, to remain the owner in case they decide to no longer work with Keremos. Working with this structure also makes everything well-organized and makes it simple to get a correct overview for each band. The goal of Keremos for each of their bands is to guide them from their early stages to a professional level. To achieve this main goal, the management engages in three main activities: promotion, production and administration. In general, the managers do all this in close contact with their bands. First of all, Keremos sets up efficient and contemporary ways to promote the bands. They do this by using the more traditional channels (radio, television, etc.) in combination with promotion through the new social media (facebook, MySpace, etc.) and occasionally they set up special actions to promote, for instance, a new album or single. Secondly, Keremos is also responsible for some production aspects of the concerts of each band. The bookings of these concerts is done by Keremos for the bands that are just starting. The other bands, who have already achieved something, have an external booker, Busker 1, who works closely together with Keremos. Nevertheless, Keremos draws up callsheets for each concert so that the bands have all the information they need. The managers also try to be present at as many concerts as possible to guide the band. Thirdly, Keremos takes care of the administration of each band. They draw up contracts, invoices, negotiate with third parties, etc. and they prepare the bookkeeping of each band which is done by an external accountant. Keremos is one of the three management companies that is recognised by the Flemish Government as an alternative management company and for this they have been receiving structural subsidies since January 2007.2 Rock’o Co and Gentlemanagement are the other two. The Flemish Government considers an alternative management company to be a service company that guides artists professionally. More specifically, they are responsible for the financial management, 1 http://www.busker.be/ 2 KEREMOS. http://www.keremos.be/site/ Date of consultation: 25/06/2010 6 distribution and promotion of the work of their artists. 3 In 2009 Keremos applied for a long-term subsidy for their entire functioning for the second time for the period from 2010 until 2013. Keremos has a limited budget to manage their 10 different bands and pay the employees. I found out during my internship that Keremos really is a company that tries to be as creative as they can in finding ways to do great things with limited resources and a limited staff. In addition to the subsidies Keremos of course generates money from its functioning. The managers receive a 20% management fee on the sales of CD’s, publishing and concerts of the bands that do not have a booker yet. Currently (2010 – 2013) the revenue structure is as follows: 36% own revenues and roughly 60% subsidies. For the next period, from 2014 onwards, Keremos aims at reversing this. 4 B. Short history The beginning of Keremos is linked to the start of the career of the band Sioen. This band started in 2000 and Tom De Clercq (one of the founders of Keremos) has been their manager from the very beginning. On April 21st 2001 the band Sioen, Tom De Clercq and a third partner set up the company Keremos in the light of the growing success of Sioen. One year later four other bands joined Keremos, Absynthe Minded being one of them. They signed a management contract with Keremos after only their second concert. In 2003 Sioen released its first full album that sold over 25.000 copies (golden record). By the end of 2003, Keremos received its first subsidy for the last quarter of that year. In 2004 Absynthe Minded finished second in the Humo’s Rock Rally and the band released its first album.