25th May all project partner countries together with their stakeholders are welcome in Riga to the Final Conference of the project hosted by the Lead partner - Ministry of Environmental Protection and Regional Development of the Republic of Latvia (MoEPRD).
The main goal of the conference is to look at the project's progress, results, and developed materials that can be used in the further work. Partners will share their feedback and further plans on supporting and promoting small and medium-sized enterprises, which were planned as part of Action Plan activities that would improve national and regional policy instruments.
During the conference Rūta Ročāne, Finance officer of Interreg Europe Joint Secretariat will give an insight into the state of play of the Interreg Europe program. Then project managers from the project Lead partner and Advisory partner will share an overview of the main DigiBEST project process, main activities developed documents and conclusions.
At the conference, all project partners – Latvia, Norway, Italy, Spain, Austria, and Portugal – will present a round-up of the main activities implemented during the project which will support and promote SMEs' competitiveness through a digital transformation of SMEs.
On the second day of the conference, project partners will gather for a final meeting to discuss concluding remarks and have a practical look at the SME representative, who has successfully incorporated digital transformation in its operations.
Agenda of the Final Conference:
9:30 Start
-Welcome of the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Regional Development of the Republic of Latvia; Welcome of the Ministry of Economics;
-“State of play of the Interreg Europe program” by Rūta Ročāne, Finance officer, Interreg Europe Joint Secretariat
-Overview of the main DigiBEST project activities from the project Lead partner and Advisory partner Santa Sīpola – Project Manager, MoEPRD; Denīze Ponomarjova –Project Manager, University of Latvia;
10:50 Results of the Action Plan’s Implementation
-Lead Partner: Ministry of Environmental Protection and Regional Development of the Republic of Latvia; Latvian Investment and Development Agency; Latvian IT Cluster/Digital Innovation Hub
-Trondelag county municipality, Norway, Mr. Eistein Guldset, Senior Adviser Digital Transformation;
-Sviluppo Basilicata SPA, Italy, Mrs Patrizia Orofino, Project manager; Mr Raffaele Paciello, Head of Unit "Communication and Public Policies"Giacomo Brodolini S.r.l. Foundation;
-Provincial Council of Granada, Spain, Ignacio Rosales Zábal, Project Manager; José Luis Dessy Martinez: Senior Adviser of Digital Transformation at Chamber of Commerce of Granada;
-Austria Wirtschaftsservice, Austria, Ms. Christina Koch, Project Manager; INiTS, Vienna’s High-Tech Incubator; European Digital Innovation Hub & European Competence Center Austria Mrs. Irene Fialka, CEO;
-Intermunicipal Community of Tâmega e Sousa, Dr. Ester Silva, Team Leader of Intermunicipal Public Policies
14:15 Presentation of project results in the Project Brochure by Denize Ponomarjova, Project Manager, University of Latvia;
-Questions/Answers/Conclusions - end of the conference
The overall objective of the DigiBEST project is to support and promote SMEs' competitiveness through a digital transformation of SMEs in rural European territories by proposing solutions to enhance their capacity to use advanced technologies and new innovative business approaches for promoting smart, sustainable, and inclusive growth in Europe and its regions. The project is co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund and Norwegian national funding through the INTERREG EUROPE program. The project is in partnership with seven partners from Latvia (lead partner), Norway, Italy, Spain, Austria, and Portugal. More on the project: www.interregeurope.eu/digibest/