The brand of the Festival was introduced in 2011 by the Małopolska Region. That is a series of various events, which took place in a several locations thoughout the Małopolska, organized by the regional innovation stakeholders coordinated by the Małopolska Region. The idea of the Festival is strongly connected with RIS focused on promoting regional smart specialisations. The Festival is annual one-week event and year by year there is a significant growth of participants and partners. In 2018 for example, there were 37 partners involved and 78 events organized in 9 different cities in Małopolska Region.
As a coordinator the Małopolska Region is responsible for organizing call for partners of the Festival, meeting with partners, setting the final agenda of the events, and comprehensive promotion of the Festival as well as preparation of opening conference and discussion panels. The region covers all promotion costs e.g. tv, radio spots, press releases, billboards and outdoor, internet ads, social media, posters, leaflets, etc. The partners of the Festival are responsible for organizing their events (alone or in cooperation) and covering the events’ costs. The events can be of a different kind (not necessarily cost-intensive, but with interesting message in line with regional smart specialisation) e.g. open days in companies/institutions, workshops, trainings, individual consultations, interactive exhibitions, conferences, street-games, competitions, etc. In return the region provides with professional promotion of the partners’ events (free of charge for partners) under one brand of the Małopolska Innovation Festival. The idea behind the Festival was to encompass a series of events revolving around innovation (that so far had been a separate initiatives organized by innovation system stakeholders) into one week event under one festival brand. The Festival is a good example of co-operation between public sector (regional authorities) and regional SMEs, big companies, science sector. The Festival promotes both innovations and entrepreneurship from the region and the region itself (as a good place for setting new businesses, for co-operation between science and business, for doing research, for exchanging ideas). Thanks to that close cooperation between public sector and entrepreneurs the mutual advantages are visible and positive for the both sides. Entrepreneurs can use the Festival as a great place to show their products for the bigger audience and at the same time public sector can be perceived as a reliable and knowledgeable partner for the future cooperation.
Summing up all previous Festivals it gathered more than 200 partners and nearly 500 events have been organized. Sharp increase of the participants is also visible year by year. The Małopolska Innovation Festival build on a recent success and promising history will be continued in the future with even bigger and wider involvement of the partners.
To find out more please visit our website www.malopolska.pl/en/business/initiatives-supporting-entrepreneurship-in-the-malopolska-region or contact Marshal Office of the Małopolska Region.
