ENCATC Workshop: "ANALYSIS OF METHODOLOGIES USED BY CULTURAL OBSERVATORIES AND STATISTICAL CENTRES. GUIDELINES FROM TRAINERS AND RESEARCHERS" Bilbao | 23-24 March 2006 Nowadays there is an emerging interest about watching reality in order to improve cultural and tourism policies that will also improve the quality of life of European citizenship. The number of Cultural Observatories and Statistics Centres that are drawing their attention to finding out cultural indicators and creating cultural Information Systems is growing up. Their aim is to be able to record either cultural supply –infrastructures, agents, events- and demand at domestic, European or international level. Consequently, there have been several attempts of mapping cultural reality. However there is a lack of training concerning methodologies on the theme. What is the background of the existing Observatories? What are their aims and objectives? Which are their legal entities? What are the agents that take part? How are they sponsored? What methodologies do they use in order to gather data that analyse cultural supply and demand? What different Cultural Information Systems do they use for turning information into knowledge? What services and products are offered? What experiences and good practices can we look about? More infomation: www.encatc.org