The themes arising from this observation were: - Musical encounters as metaphor for cultural encounters - Music history: perceptions of many truths - Methods of teaching in an intercultural environment

The format of the first theme was a successful break with the convention of academic keynote presentations: six short video fragments served as the basis for concentrated analyses by experts with varying backgrounds. The strength of the rest of the working conference lay not in the number of participants (about 50 altogether) but again in the format: in the depth of the discussions that could be reached through good preparation in small closed sessions with a clear briefing and input from invited experts from different countries.

As a result of this, the discussions were able to go beyond the academia and political correctness that have ruled conferences about this subject for the last ten years, and begin to confront the real, deeper issues of cultural diversity: the hegemony of western ways of thinking that often leads to false solutions for matters that should be approached from a transcultural point of view.