Three-day residential programme in Potsdam brings together film, television, gaming, and publishing professionals to build sustainable intellectual property
Potsdam, Germany — The Erich Pommer Institut (EPI) announces the launch of IP Development for Creative Professionals, a brand-new residential workshop taking place 17–19 September 2026 in Potsdam, Germany. Part of EPI’s established Essential Legal Framework programme, the workshop is designed to help creative professionals across film, television, animation, video games, and publishing move beyond the project-to-project cycle and develop intellectual properties with lasting commercial and cultural value.
As competition for audience attention intensifies across every platform and the traditional financing chain for European producers comes under mounting pressure, the ability to own, protect, and scale original IP has become a defining skill for independent creatives. The workshop addresses that need directly, covering the full IP development cycle: from defining a creative property and testing it as a Minimum Viable Product, to rights protection, audience development, cross-platform expansion, and international licensing.
Leading the programme as Head of Studies is Nuno Bernardo, Emmy-nominated producer and Managing Director of beActive Entertainment. A transmedia pioneer, Bernardo is best known for Sofia’s Diary, which grew from a Portuguese online series into a Sony Pictures Television format distributed across thirty countries. His career has been built on a deliberate shift from commissioned production to sustainable IP ownership — the very transition the workshop is designed to enable.
“The creators who are thriving — across film, TV, animation, gaming, and publishing — are the ones who have learned to think beyond the single project,” says Bernardo. “They build intellectual properties with depth: stories that can grow, travel, and connect with audiences across formats and territories. This workshop is a practical, hands-on laboratory to help participants make exactly that shift.“
What sets the programme apart is its cross-sector structure. Rather than addressing film or gaming or publishing professionals in isolation, IP Development for Creative Professionals deliberately convenes practitioners from complementary disciplines in the same room. “Each of these sectors has solved a problem the others are still working through,” Bernardo notes. “Putting these people together is faster than learning each discipline from the outside. Three days of cross-sector conversation will save participants months of mistakes.“
Speakers include industry practitioners from leading studios, marketing agencies, and the publishing and gaming industries. Sessions combine expert-led content with hands-on exercises and real industry case studies, with participants developing their own IP strategy step by step across the three days.
The workshop is conducted in English and is open to writers, producers, game creators, and cross-sector teams at any stage of IP development. A limited number of partial scholarships are available for nationals of Creative Europe – MEDIA eligible countries, as well as local scholarships for media professionals based in Berlin, Brandenburg, and the Mitteldeutschland region, thanks to the support of Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg. Scholarship applications are open until 16 August 2026.
Prospective participants can learn more at two free online information sessions, hosted by Nuno Bernardo and the EPI team:
- 11 June 2026, 16:00 CEST
- 18 August 2026, 15:00 CEST
Both sessions are approximately thirty minutes long and are free of charge upon registration.
Further information, registration, and scholarship applications are available at epi.media/IPdevelopment.
Press contact:
Katarzyna von Matthiessen
Project Manager International Training
+49 (0) 331 76 99 15 09 | This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
