Luc Delrue

The through-line

Luc Delrue's argument is that Flanders already sits on a world-class entertainment-technology industry and has never built the infrastructure to hold on to it. Belgium leads globally in stage technology, with Barco, Stageco, AED and PRG behind the biggest shows on earth, to the point where "Als men zegt Ice in de sfeer in Las Vegas, er wordt meer West-Vlaams achter de schermen gesproken dan dat daar Engels gesproken wordt" [1][2]. What follows from that observation is a single, repeated demand: give the sector a physical and institutional landing place, and do it at the speed the technology now dictates. Everything else he says, about Brexit, about graduates leaving, about gaming funding cycles, about who gets to make culture, is an application of that one position.

The second strand running through his thinking is that experience has become the organising category of the economy and of society. "Alles wordt beleving eigenlijk... het gaat over een belevingssamenleving" [2], and if that is true then entertainment technology is not a niche export sector but the infrastructure of how people will live, consume culture and be included in it.

On why Flanders missed Brexit and cannot miss the next one

The clearest evidence he offers for the failure of Flemish industrial ambition is what happened when companies started leaving the UK. "Wij hebben eigenlijk niks binnengehaald na de brexit. We hadden daar ook geen programma voor, we hadden daar geen landingsplaats voor" [1][2]. The diagnosis is not that Flanders was unattractive but that it had nothing concrete to offer: no program, no site, no place to land. The Entertainment Valley business campus along the A12 in Boom is explicitly framed as a catch-up move for that lost round, designed to attract international scale-ups and startups in entertainment technology [1][2].

On what Entertainment Valley actually is

He is careful about what is being built, and particularly careful that the knowledge center not be mistaken for a venue. It is a research and prototyping facility, modeled on the test circuits used for self-driving cars, and linked to imec [1][2]. The point of a test track is that you can break things on it. Prototypes then move out to satellite venues, AB and Tomorrowland among them, where they meet real audiences under real conditions [1][2]. The credibility of the whole project rests on the existing industrial base rather than on ambition alone: Barco accounts for a share of world cinema screens that he corrects upward himself, "Ik werd gecorrigeerd dat dat geen 50 maar 65 procent is van alle schermen van de cinema's wereldwijd" [1][2], and Stageco, AED and PRG sit alongside it [2].

On brain drain

The talent case is blunt. Howest's DAE has twice been named the best gaming school in the world, and 80% of its graduates leave Flanders [1]. The reasons are structural rather than cultural: the local market is too small to absorb them and foreign employers pay better [1]. This is the argument that ties the campus to the schools. Producing world-leading graduates is worth little if there is no domestic industry deep enough to employ them at competitive rates.

On time-to-market and why AI is the fix

Flemish gaming's core problem, as he frames it, is arithmetic. Games take about three years to reach market, while equity funds want their money back in one to one and a half years, or returns after two [1][2]. That mismatch means capital and product cannot meet, and no amount of talent closes it. AI is the acceleration that shortens development toward the horizon investors will accept, which is why he casts adoption as a competition rather than a choice: "De concurrentieslag zal gewonnen worden in de snelheid en wie AI het best toepast" [1][2]. The countries that adopt fastest will keep growing [2]. He also reports no resistance to this from the sector itself: "Ik ken geen enkel succesvol bedrijf in Vlaanderen die op dat vlak negatief kijkt" [1].

On digital culture and who gets included

His position on cultural policy is that inclusion is a distribution problem, and that the traditional institutions are the wrong distribution channel. "Die jonge mensen, die andere generaties, die mensen die met een andere achtergrond zitten, die gaan die culturele wereld pas instappen als dat op een digitale manier gebeurt en niet via de cultuurhuizen" [1]. He points to the Brussels rap scene as a case where creators want neither subsidies nor traditional venues [2]. The policy conclusion is also a budget conclusion, and it is where his cultural and industrial arguments meet: a digital workspace might cost around €1M against €100M for a 2,000-seat hall [1]. Cheap digital infrastructure and places to hang out and create beat large cultural buildings on both reach and price [1][2].

Takeaways

• Belgium's stage-technology sector is a genuine world leader, with Barco alone at 65% of cinema screens worldwide alongside Stageco, AED and PRG, and that base is what makes Entertainment Valley credible rather than aspirational [1][2].
• Flanders won nothing after Brexit because it had no program and no landing place for relocating companies; the A12 business campus in Boom is a deliberate catch-up [1][2].
• The knowledge center is a research and prototyping facility on the model of self-driving car test circuits, not a venue, with AB and Tomorrowland as satellites for audience testing [1][2].
• 80% of graduates from Howest's DAE, twice named the world's best gaming school, leave Flanders because the market is too small and foreign pay is higher [1].
• Gaming's funding gap is a timing gap: roughly three years to market against equity funds wanting returns in one and a half to two years, and AI-driven acceleration is how that closes [1][2].
• "De concurrentieslag zal gewonnen worden in de snelheid en wie AI het best toepast" [1][2], and no successful Flemish company he knows takes a negative view of it [1].
• Reaching young and diverse audiences means going digital rather than through cultural houses, and a digital workspace at roughly €1M does more for inclusion than a €100M 2,000-seat hall [1][2].