Issue N° 131 - April 2015
Keep up to date on innovation matters worldwide with the INSME Association!
Dear INSMEnews Readers,
the countdown towards the 11th INSME Annual Meeting at Cape Town has started!
As every year we are looking forward to add a milestone in the INSME Networking Events' Success Story!
A range of new collaboration opportunities might result from the inspiring discussions on "Technology and Innovation for Inclusive Growth" and the variety of stakeholders involved will make sure the Innovation Ecosystem always improves.
In this regard let me share the following thought:
"Walls turned sideways are bridges"
(Angela Davis)
Courtesy of: http://creativefan.com
...and now as usual enjoy your reading!
Ms. Christin Pfeiffer
INSME Secretary General
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The 11th INSME Annual Meeting is approaching and numerous international delegates will reach South Africa to share ideas and discuss future trends on "Technology and Innovation for Inclusive Growth" in just one month time. This year’s event will take place from the 26th to the 28th of May 2015 and is held in conjunction with Forging Enterprise, a major national event to celebrate the 20th anniversary from the launch of the South Africa’s small business policy by former President Nelson Mandela.
In addition to the Round Tables and the International Conference on days 26th and 27th of May, the 28th of May will be dedicated to a stimulating Innovation Tour which will offer participants the opportunity to visit the Launch Lab and the Barn, two (South) African Innovation Excellences. The afternoon offers the occasion to take part in the interactive INSME & OSIBA International Training on "Frugal Innovation in the Context of Social Entrepreneurship" organized at the Cape Town Craft and Design Institute. Mr. Rajat Batra from STENUM Asia and Mr. Lars Iversen from Springfellow will analyze the necessity to create and foster a new ecosystem in which Startup companies and entrepreneurs might "gain access to capital and exploit local and national synergies in cooperation with established businesses as well as the public sector". The International Expert Training is also the occasion to gain insights from a case study of a local young entrepreneur involved in the field of Social Entrepreneurship. The intensive afternoon session will end with an interactive space in which relators and participants will share opinions and ideas on the following questions:
To receive full information about the International Training visit this page and do not miss the 2015 must-attend event by benefitting from the extended early-bird rates registering here!
INSME and EBN (INSME Member from Belgium) in collaboration with the German Arab Chamber of Industry & Commerce organize a Masterclass for Young Entrepreneurs in Egypt in the framework of the EUROMED Invest Project, an initiative coordinated by ANIMA Investment Network (INSME Member from France) with the aim of boosting private business and investment within the Euro-Med area to contribute to an inclusive economic development of the region.
The Masterclass, taking place on the 5th and 6th of May 2015, will address young entrepreneurs to enhance their skills and competences on relevant issues in fields such as: Innovation Management; Business Model Canvas; Internationalization of enterprises; The lean startups.
Learn more about the project here.
The Foundation for European Initiatives - TFEI (INSME Member from the United Kingdom) has recently launched the Caribbean Enterprise Tool for Entrepreneurs (CREATE (CR8)), a self assessment tool assisting Caribbean entrepreneurs to determine their entrepreneurial skill deficit and to understand which kind of training might help them to fill the gap. The tool developed with P4ACE will last ca. 15 minutes and will result in a report containing entrepreneurs’ strengths and training needs. At this purpose TFEI has built a database of training course providers which includes courses on relevant topics such as communication, finance, human resources, information technology, management and marketing.
Find out more here.
The Triple Helix Association (INSME Member from Italy) is organizing a webinar on "Critical success factors in University-Industry Collaboration" taking place on the 5th of May at 6 p.m. CEST.
During this 1-hour webinar the speakers will look into a wider spectrum of knowledge transfer between academia and industry. Research commercialization is more than licensing and spin-offs. The webinar will specifically look into university-industry collaboration presenting two examples of such partnerships and their role in driving innovation.
Thanks to an agreement signed by INSME and Triple Helix Association, INSME Members can benefit from a 20% discount on the regular organizational membership that allows the free access to this webinar and to the following ones.
For more information and to register please send an e-mail to the following e-mail address.
This year, the World Economic Forum has been officially recognized as the International Institution for Public-Private Cooperation. Mr. Klaus Schwab, Founder and Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum, highlights the fundamental role of the public-private cooperation as a methodology to find solutions to complex problems, but he also states that public-private cooperation itself is a complex issue.
The Forum is steadily committed to serve as a public good and this is the reason why members and partners continue to support and engage with the Forum and its programmes.
Mr. Schwab also declares "The Forum has undergone a fundamental transformation in recent years, building a capability for identifying and benchmarking problems, finding creative ways of bringing people together to tackle them and taking the lead in a number of initiatives."
Read more here.
APEC Members are the world’s largest producers and consumers of information and communication technologies and ICT has created excellent conditions for commercial innovation and actions.
The meeting of Telecommunications and Information Ministers from the 21 APEC Members held in March in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia has been the occasion to discuss about relevant issues related to the Digital Economy.
The Ministers agreed that it is crucial to design a new environment, to boost digital infrastructures and to create a dynamic political framework to support the innovation industry.
More information is available at this page.
Big ideas do not occur to us spontaneously, our minds build them from a chain of associations and connections, often over a considerable period of time.
Albert Einstein for example reinvented physics by introducing the relativity theory after thinking about it for at least seven years.
According to the author of the article, Mr. Rowan Gibson to come up to with a big idea we need a creative process built on an illuminating insight into a situation or a problem that inspires an unexpected leap of association in the mind. This helps to have new perspectives and to find new connections which enable combinations that may manifest themself as big ideas or creative solutions.
Read the whole article here.
The article highlights a series of advices that, according to Lyle Stevens, co-founder of an American social and marketing platform Mavrck, may help entrepreneurs to build a network of mentors to support their business.
Some of these advices are:
To find out more advices visit this page.
According to this article by the China IPR SME Helpdesk (INSME Partner), internet has become a popular channel for product distribution around the world, but it can also be used to distribute counterfeit goods which infringe intellectual property rights. A company should safeguard its business in China by following a three-step strategy: registering rights, monitoring e-commerce sites and if necessary requesting take-downs of counterfeit or infringing goods.
Read the article here.
ISPIM (INSME Member from the United Kingdom) is calling for paper abstracts for the upcoming ISPIM Innovation Summit - Changing the Innovation Landscape to be held in Brisbane, Australia from the 6th to the 9th of December 2015.
With multi-track sessions, site-visits and diverse networking opportunities, the three-day event mainly targets innovation researchers, industry executives, thought leaders and policy makers and is expected to gather ca. 200 innovation stakeholders from around the world.
ISPIM will particularly welcome submissions on the following three macro-topics: Entrepreneurship & Innovation in the Digital Economy; Frugal Innovation and Entrepreneurial Bricolage; Big data and Innovation.
Selected papers will also be published in the ISPIM’s official journal, The International Journal of Innovation Management, as well as in sections of other associated Journals.
The deadline for sending contributions is the 18th of September 2015.
Please click here for further information.
The European Commission is looking for women who have founded or co-founded a company and who themselves or their company have benefitted from EU funding related to Research and Innovation.
The EU Prize for Women Innovators is open to those women who have successfully brought their ideas to the market and reside in an EU Member State or a country associated to Horizon 2020, the EU's research and innovation programme. In addition the company must have been registered before the 1st of January 2013 and have had an annual turnover of at least EUR 100 000 in 2013 or 2014.
The European Commission plans to award up to three prizes, composed by: 1st prize: € 100.000,00; 2nd prize: € 50.000,00; 3rd prize: € 30.000,00.
The deadline for submitting entries is the 20th of October 2015.
To learn more about the award, please click here.
The Inter-American Development Bank -IDB recently launched the fourth edition of the Juscelino Kubitschek Award to reward organizations and institutions that have carried out activities, programs, or projects that have made significant contributions with proven sustainable impact to the social and economic development of the people of Latin America and the Caribbean.
The award is divided in two main categories:
The award consists of a diploma and a check in the amount of US$ 100,000.
The deadline for presenting nominations is the 29th of June 2015.
Please click here to learn more about the selection criteria.
The UNIDO ITPO Italy, the Investment and Technology Promotion Office of the United Nations Industrial Development Organization in collaboration with the Italian National Research Council launched a call for tender open to innovative ideas and technologies already developed or still to be developed aimed at leading to social and economic improvements in Developing Countries (DCs).
The call for tender is open to: micro, small, medium and large enterprises; start-ups operating in sectors linked to the tender; research centers, incubators, university spin-offs and academic entities; public-private partnerships; associations, business consortia and networks, NGOs, as well as public and private foundations linked to the business world.
Applicants will be awarded with a complete project assessment based on the COMFAR (Computer Model for Feasibility Analysis and Reporting).
The deadline for sending applications is the 30th of June 2015.
For any further information, please click here.
According to the latest outlook for Southeast Asia, China and India 2015 published by the OECD Development Centre and the ASEAN Secretariat, growth prospects look favorable overall in Emerging Asia over the medium term. The large ASEAN-5 economies (Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand and Viet Nam) will sustain their growth momentum, particularly led by Indonesia and the Philippines with an average annual growth of 6.0 and 6.2 respectively over 2015-2019. China and India face significant challenges: China’s growth is slowing as it seeks to adjust to an ageing population, switches its growth focus from investment to consumption and copes with agricultural, environmental and educational issues. India’s growth should be stable over 2015-2019, but this could change as the new government carries out ambitious plans for investments and reforms.
Generally, improved government capacity as well as reforms to improve competitiveness, education and inclusive and sustainable growth are needed to achieve policy goals more consistently.
Plans to cope with the informal sector are needed as well as it limits the reach of government and lowers productivity levels.
Read the whole report here.
Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are notably underrepresented in LAC’s international transactions despite their importance as the backbone of LAC economies and a source of employment for millions of people. SMEs constitute more than 95% of the region’s companies, but only 13% of these firms engage in exports. In addition, LAC SMEs that do export tend to sell only a few products to a rather reduced number of markets. These figures highlighted the potential for countries in Latin America and the Caribbean that would gain significant growth by fostering SMEs internationalization, particularly by focusing on SMEs with a strong potential to succeed in international markets.
This report issued by the Inter-American Development Bank seeks to suggest tools to support and accelerate SMEs internationalization in the region. The findings strongly suggest that a paradigm shift is needed. LAC should leave behind isolated support mechanisms that may or may not put SMEs’ priorities at the forefront and embrace a holistic and coordinated set of national economic and trade policies along with managerial and operational practices within SMEs and targeted institutional innovations.
Learn more here.
Biz4Africa is an online platform aiming at sharing best business practices and advisory services for African SMEs across different fields. The online platform is meant to be a one-stop-shop to meet the needs of every start-up, small business and medium-sized enterprise at three entry points; the start, growth and acceleration phase by providing both free of charge services and online offers complemented by valuable information and learning experiences in one place.
To learn more, please click here.
Smart Company is the reference website for Australia’s entrepreneurs, small and medium business owners and business managers. The website issues a daily newsletter that covers a wide range of relevant issues for small and medium businesses. The newsletter features Australian entrepreneurs, contributions from expert bloggers and updates about the latest business trends, tax and legal developments, personal finance, businesses for sales and webinars.
To subscribe to the newsletter, please click here.
2015 Dublin LEAD Summit - Driving Competitiveness22nd of May 2015
The Summit will bring together leading companies both from Europe and Japan to share their experience on best practice approaches in the relentless quest for global competitiveness. The range of case studies will be broad and include large and small companies, service providers, companies working in the construction business, food, pharmaceuticals/healthcare, precision engineering, design, automotive and other sectors. Presentations will not only focus on best practices in production areas but will also showcase improvement activities across all business operations.
21st EARMA Annual Conference28th of June - 1st of July 2015
Under the topic "Global Outreach: Enabling Cultures and Diversity in Research Management and Administration", the Annual Conference is divided into 7 different tracks to tackle the challenge of cooperation, not only in the field of scientific research & innovation and higher education but also in the field of research management and administration. Representatives from the JEUPISTE Consortium - which includes INSME as partner - will participate at the conference by bringing insights on the project which is based on a strong collaboration between Europe and Japan in the field of innovation, science and technology. For further information about the project, please click here.
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1st of May - 31st of October 2015
Expo Milan 2015
Milan, Italy
2nd - 5th of May 2015
48th Annual Meeting of the Asian Development Bank
Organized by the Asian Development Bank (INSME Member)
Baku, Azerbaijan
5th - 7th of May 2015
INNOVEIT 2015 - The EIT Innovation Forum
Organized by the European Institute of Innovation & Technology
Budapest, Hungary
7th - 8th of May 2015
15th EBAN Annual Congress
Organized by EBAN (INSME Member)
Eindoven, The Netherlands
11th - 13th of May 2015
The 1st World Free Zones Organization (World FZO) International Conference and Exhibition
Organized by the World Free Zones Organizations
Dubai, United Arab Emirates
13th - 14th of May 2015
"EUROMED Invest Roadshow" Agrotech in Med
Organized by AGROTECHinMED, the Dahra Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Hungarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Piemonte Agency for Investments, Exports and Tourism, the Casablanca Chamber of Commerce and Industry
Algiers, Algeria
19th - 20th of May 2015
5th Annual Africa Banking & Finance Conference
Organized by AIDEM Business Solutions
Nairobi, Kenya
20th - 22nd of May 2015
eLearning Africa 2015 - 10th International Conference on ICT for Development, Education and Training
Organized by the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology (MCIT) of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
26th - 28th of May 2015
11th INSME Annual Meeting on "Technology and Innovation for Inclusive Growth"
Organized by INSME and OSIBA Management (INSME Board Member)
Cape Town, South Africa
2nd - 3rd of June 2015
OECD Forum 2015
Organized by the OECD (INSME Moral Sponsor)
Paris, France
14th - 17th of June 2015
XXVI ISPIM Innovation Conference
Organized by ISPIM (INSME Member)
Budapest, Hungary
21st - 23rd of August 2015
XIII Triple Helix International Conference
Organized by Triple Helix Association (INSME Member)
Beijing, China
14th - 16th of October 2015
CULTURALLIA 2015
Organized by Hainaut Developpement, the Chamber of Commerce and the Exporters' Club of Belgian Province of Luxembourg, SPI, BEP and in partnership with AWEX (INSME Member)
Mons, Belgium
20th - 22nd of October 2015
World Entrepreneurship Forum on "Global Entrepreneurship: Connected Continents, New Opportunities"
Organized by the World Entrepreneurship Forum and the Hanghzou City
Hangzhou, China
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