The first substantial item on the agenda was the first International Learning Event in Limoges, France.
The meeting participants were given an overlook to the meeting agenda and the study visit targets, the Bernardaud porcelain factory and the enterprises focusing on R&D in the ceramics sector. In the meeting the stakeholder group member Piia Hautamäki, who participated the meeting trip, related her experiences, including her visit to the specific kiln museum in Limoges (Musée du Four des Casseaux). The meeting audience presented some questions about the study visit targets.
Secondly, the meeting discussed the process from the sector analysis to the needs survey.
The meeting continued with going through the results of the sector analysis and how it was addressed in the Limoges meeting. The coordinator explained the next step of regional surveys. The stakeholder group was also informed about the series of visits that the project coordinator started in January, visiting ceramic actors in the South Ostrobothnia region. It was discussed here, how these two perspectives to actors’ situations and needs might complement each other. The meeting also discussed the project goals on a general level including the objectives of increasing innovativeness and competitivity in the ceramics sector and related those goals to the size and nature of the branch in SO region in comparison to those of the project’s other regions.
Thirdly, the upcoming CLAY-meeting in Seinäjoki was briefly discussed.
The stakeholder group was informed about the dates of the third International Learning Event as was decided in Limoges ( 11– 12 September 2019). Initial ideas for the meeting contents were brought to discussion immediately as were the possibilities to involve ceramic actors of the neighbouring regions in the activities of ILE3.
In the free discussion, a couple of points were brought up.
The stakeholder group wished to point out that, although the extent of ceramics R&D in Nouvelle Aquitaine may appear as “beyond reach” from the viewpoint of South Ostrobothnia, the impressions brought from the Limoges meeting nevertheless spurred more interest into 3D printing technologies in ceramics and that there is seen no actual barriers to why those technologies could not be implemented also in the So region, even if that would be on the levels of Adult Education Centres. At the end of the meeting, there was agreed on the date for the next LSG meeting. The materials of the meeting, the PP slides and the meeting minutes, were sent to meeting attendees after the meeting.
