Newsletter CDIF

Building on its success with the LPS National Meetings (Saint-Etienne, June 2005) and the « SPL, clusters and Poles of competitiveness Summer School » (Bordeaux, September 2006), the CDIF is organising this year the “Europe-Mediterranean Clusters Conference” on next November 21st and 22nd.
This event is supported by numerous partner organizations :

With the exceptional contribution of the World Bank

The “Europe-Mediterranean Clusters Conference” will be part of the “Mediterranean Economic Week”

http://spl.cdif.fr/click.php?lettre_id=69&envoi_id=&adresse_id=&url=

Specific Objectives

About 500 participants are expected to attend the conference in order to :
- promote cooperation and synergies between Local Productive Systems (LPS) and Competitiveness Clusters (“Pôles de compétitivité”) and thus reinforce their effectiveness.
- encourage methodological transfers to boost clusters’ innovation processes
- open up debates to foreign experiences and encourage trans-national cooperation between clusters
- make business networks and local authorities aware of new forms of collective innovation
- discover the new clusters policy adopted by the Provence Alpes Côte d’Azur Region called “PRIDES”
- influence future public policies in support of business networks

Programme

>>> 22 round-tables and workshops in 2 languages (French and English)
During these round-tables and workshops, about 70 French and foreign speakers will share good practices and expertise on the following main topics :
I : « Financing the innovation potential of business clusters »
II : « Improving skills, a strategic challenge for clusters seeking to support SMEs’ innovation capacity and competitiveness »
III : «LPS and Competitiveness Clusters : productive complementarities to innovate in favour of SMEs and territories »
IV : « Clusters going international : from SMEs export consortia to inter-clusters cooperation »
V : « Clusters and sustainable development : how they contribute to territorial competitiveness and the creation of new jobs
VI : « Regional Innovation Strategies: point of convergence between the European economic strategy, French industrial policies and SMEs’ needs? »

>>> Alliances’ Forum
The Alliances forum will be an exhibition space made available to participants and aimed at encouraging interclustering and interentreprise cooperation.
Take this opportunity to promote your know-how, innovative experiences, research work, etc. For further information and to participate, contact the CDIF by Email.

>>> Cluster Tours in the PACA region
Following the Conference on November 23rd, you will have the opportunity to take part in a Cluster Tour in the Provence Alps Côte d’Azur region.
Since the number of places is limited, we invite you to sign-up for this tour by filling in the registration form as soon as possible.

Call for contributions : share your experience as a cluster practitioner !

The Europe-Mediterranean Conference will be organised in a way that provides ample opportunities to interact on issues concerning clusters practitioners.
Take this opportunity to share your experience and knowledge on the above mentioned topics by submitting a proposal before October 5th, 2007 for consideration as a presentation at the Conference!
You can download the call description and application form to complete in Word format.

The draft programme and registration form are available for downloading !

You can download them from the links below (« Useful Links »)

Keep updated with the Europe-Mediterranean Clusters Conference developments

A blog of the Conference is under construction. Very soon, you will be able to keep updated with the conference developments (confirmed participation of invited public personalities, further information on the Cluster Tour in the Provence Alps Côte d’Azur region, etc.)
Details to follow in the next issues of LPS Info !

Useful links

The blog of the Conference

The draft programme

The registration form

The CDIF Website

Contact for organisation

contact@cdif.fr

CDIF

Tél : +33 (0)4 78 54 67 09
ou +33 (0)4 78 53 78 23
ou +33 (0)4 78 53 87 59

Fax : +33 (0)4 72 76 95 07

Contact for registration

marchal.braun@wanadoo.fr

Agence MBC

Tél : +33 (0)1 53 33 86 70
Fax : +33 (0)1 53 33 04 33