Inês Blu Rodrigues

received a degree in Economics from the Lusíada University in Lisbon, and a Postgraduate qualification in Communication, Image and Marketing from the IADE Institute in Lisbon. While still at university, she started her professional career as an intern at the newspaper “O Independente” and, afterwards, as a journalist for an Economy supplement. Inês was responsible for writing about the evolution of the most well-known brands, and their communication and image policy.

Her education was enriched with a Master’s degree in International Politics at the CERIS Institute in Brussels and a Master’s degree in Protocol at the Miguel Hernandez University in Madrid. She also complemented her training with scriptwriting and acting workshops at Universal Studios in Los Angeles during the summer of 2004. There, several short films were produced with her participation and under the supervision of Kelly Hughes.

Her professional career moved her to Brussels, where she took up residence, and where she was the advisor to the Portuguese politician José Pacheco Pereira and to the writer Vasco Graça Moura at the European Parliament (2002-2007). Currently, she is a consultant for the European Parliament.

On one hand passionate about writing, communication, Protocol and image, and on the other hand an entrepreneur, battler and traveller, Inês soon discovered that her path was to create her own company, embodying all of her interests. As a result, Blustamp – Protocol and Image was founded in 2003. Inês leads the company as the CEO, and combines that with other activities such as being a conference speaker and a collaborator of several magazines, and acting as a protocol and etiquette consultant for several companies. In 2007, she took one step further and moved to Milan to train at the European Institute of Design, where she was invited to be a researcher at the Hong Kong University and develop a concept about etiquette, protocol and image from the perspective of the West and the East. This paper took her to Bangkok, Hong Kong, the Philippines, Malaysia and Singapore, among other countries.

In 2008 the International School of Protocol was set up in Brussels and Inês was invited to be its director.

At the same time, Blustamp continues its projects producing cross-cultural book collections, advising in Protocol etiquette and image, and coaching in internationalisation management. Inês is invited to every protocol congress in the world, where she is a speaker and a professor.

Reading and singing jazz occupies almost all her free time. Dave Brubeck, Nina Simone, Astrud Gilberto and Cassandra Wilson are her musical references.