Regional policy makers, public officers, innovation managers and experts working in the field of innovation and SMEs support attended the event held in Venice, on September 18th 2009. The more than 60 participants have had the chance to share the views and the programmes and to compare the different innovation infrastructures models and practices running in several European regions.

During the opening session, Mr. Andries Greiner, Deputy Queen’s commissioner of the Flevoland region and Chair of the MINI EUROPE Monitoring Board have introduced the conference topic together with Mr. Vendemiano Sartor, Regional Councillor of the Veneto Region in charge of Economic Development, Research and Innovation. They have been followed by the description of the general framework of innovation infrastructure in the eight partners’ regions: the Province of Flevoland (the Netherlands), North West of England (UK), Észak-Alföld (Hungary), Maramures (Romania), Mid Sweden (Sweden), Valencia Region (Spain), Western Greece (Greece) and Veneto Region (Italy).

Afterwards several stakeholders have presented to the audience and discussed together their own experiences, among them Gian Angelo Bellati, Regional Union of the Chamber of Commerce,  Zsolt Hradeczky, Pole Programme Network Development Agency – Debrecen, Andrea Berti, Start Cube University Incubator – Padova,  Celia Brigg , North West Universities Association – Manchester, Massimo Malaguti, Galileo Science Park – Padova,  Hedwig Boerrigter Regional Development Agency Flevoland – Lelystad and Enzo Moi, Veneto Innovazione – Venezia.

The event had also the ambitious goal to exemplify suitable paths to overcome the current economic situation implementing innovative strategies that have already proven their effectiveness in other European areas: “It is an important idea – said Mr Sartor – and the Veneto Region is deeply engaged in it presenting the concrete policy initiatives aiming to support clusters development and to provide innovative financial tools to boost SMEs competitiveness. The collaboration with our European partners will surely accelerate the development and stimulate change for the benefit of businesses and entrepreneurs”.

It all started within the framework of a local and regional project in the County of Vasternorrland addressing young people and their potential entrepreneurial future. Within the framework of this project “Open for Business”( OFB) a number of programmes and activities were developed and launched for enhancement of entrepreneurial attitudes among students and young people up to 30.

In collaboration with 3 OFB municipalities 50 young students created their own summer jobs as micro entrepreneurs 2002-2005. The programme today runs in more than 40 municipalities with 600-700 participants yearly.

It’s based on a well developed methodology and a unique approach to entrepreneurship with its origin from the cooperation between Centre for Entrepreneurship, Education and Development, Nova Scotia, Canada and the County of Vasternorrland, Sweden.

The project is currently available for 4 Sectors (‘Advanced Engineering and Materials’, ‘Digital and Creative Industries’, ‘Business and Professional Services’ and ‘Construction’) and extend the sectors covered by the HLSP to include ‘Energy and Environmental Technologies’, ‘Food and Drink’ and ‘Biomedical’.

More information can be found here

Business Family Radio Commercial 1, Business Family Radio Commercial 2, Business Family Radio Commercial 3, Business Family Radio Commercial 4.

Tameside has a significant ‘enterprise gap’ compared with the neighbouring districts of Greater Manchester.

Research in 2006/7, identified that the gap was made worse by the lack of people living in the Borough who did not already have a family member in business. The research showed that people are more likely to think about starting up their own business if a family member is already in business. In addition, their first attempt at seeking assistance relating to start up would also be with a family member in business.

The Business Family was created to attempt to break this cycle and fill the gap by offering a friendly, informal and supporting role to help individuals through the process, nurturing them through the initial pre start and start up process and offering ongoing mentoring and coaching beyond that. The Business Family was an attempt to change the whole culture around enterprise, change perceptions and raise aspirations amongst local people.

The Tameside Business Family is acknowledged as an exciting new enterprising concept that involves local businesses in the design, development and co-ordination of business support services in Tameside, encouraging them to grow and prosper, to learn from each other and to work towards a much more enterprising community.

Involvement by a group of businesses and local partners together with ongoing discussions between Tameside MBC, Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce, Tameside College and the local private business community, enabled an enterprise team to be put in place in August 2007 funded by ERDF in part. This enterprise team acts as the core of the Business Family but relies heavily on the private contributions from local businesses and entrepreneurs.

Examples of how we are managing to change attitudes locally include:

Enterprise Bus

Enterprise Days at Local Supermarkets

Recession Busting Event

Local Enterprise Awards

Women’s Enterprise Network

More information can be found here