The Clusters3 project partners met for the 5 Interregional Workshop in Riga. The meeting was combined with INTER-COMP-INNO Conference - an international conference with aim to explore advantages of cooperation to foster COMPetitiveness, INNOvation and INTERnationalization of small and medium enterprises (SME’s) .
The conference was organized by the Ministry of Economics of The Republic of Latvia - the partner of CLUSTERS3 project.
During the COMPetitiveness session the participants had the opportunity to hear international and local experts stressing the importance of cooperation for the promotion of competitiveness, innovation and internationalization of SME’s.
One of the main Keynote speaker of the conference was Christian Ketels, member of the Harvard Business School faculty at the Institute for Strategy and Competitiveness and President of TCI Network. Christian Ketels highlighted the role of clusters in shaping competitiveness of the region.
Another international expert Kaspar Nielsen, Internationalisation Manager at Cluster Excellence Denmark, talked about internationalization for competitiveness of SME’s on an example of BSR Stars Innovation Express experience.
The INTERnationalisation session included experiences of Latvian, Polish and Hungarian clusters in entering external markets. Whereas the INNOvation focused on how collaboration and transfer of knowledge between small, medium and large enterprises affects the development of new innovate products.
At the end of the conference the participants took part in “Clash-ter night”. It was a great opportunity to share stories of professional failure in cluster community.
The next day the project partners took part in Interregional Learning Workshop. The topic of the workshop was Internationalisation of Cluster Organisations. During the first part the participants presented their good practices on how to boost internationalisation through clusters. The second part of the workshop was dedicated to COMs and SCTI agents cooperation. It was an occasion to discuss how to boost technology Innovation in SMEs.
The meeting in Riga ended with "pass the torch" ceremony. Northern Ireland will host the next Interregional Workshop and Open Conference.
