This event, held online, consisted in six half-day sessions in a period of three weeks (starting on the 27th of November 2020 and finalizing on the 18th of December 2020). The objective was to contribute to clusters capacity-building, exchange experiences and generate new potential collaborations between participating clusters.
What’s the objective of ClusterXchange ?
It encourages and facilitates transnational, cross-regional and cross-sectoral cooperation between clusters and their members to boost their learning and innovation-oriented activities with the view to increase the competitiveness of European SMEs.
PARTICIPANTS :
Participation of 25 European clusters and organizations, from 9 different countries (Italy, Spain, Ireland, Ukraine, Romania, Poland, Germany, Bulgaria and France).
AGENDA :
Opening session: Networking
- 27th November 9:00-13:00 SmartCTClusters project presentation and clusters’ pitches.
- Each cluster made a presentation (main sectors of activity, members composition, mission/vision, cluster main objectives and/or working areas, share your interest regarding new initiatives, if you are looking for specific collaborations and indicate if you are awarded with any cluster labelling and main challenges regarding cluster management).
- Each cluster had the opportunity to communicate / disseminate specific projects / initiatives / opportunities for clusters, members or both. MAFEX explained the RailActivation project.
Cluster strategy design
- 1st December 9:30-13:30
- 4th December 9:30-13:30. Understand how important is to define the strategy of the cluster and to understand the market. Case studies for training of different sectors (Textil, food, footwear, tourism, etc. cluster).
Knowledge exchange and networking
- 10th December 9:30-13:00 knowledge exchange from different clusters’ experiences. Information about ESCA labelling process. Sharing insights from a gold label cluster and tecnological centres.
Financial and Sustainable Business Models for Cluster Management –
- 14th December 9:30-13:30. Cluster initiative indicators: Trainning about the importance of measuring and monitoring the cluster activities with KPIs. Sharing information about how clusters can use indicators to measure the success of the activities and how they need to face the strategic change. Use of instruments for follow up.
- 18th December 9:30-13:30. Services and new sources for funding. Examples on how to develop new services and identification of new funding sources. Cluster management tools. Their function and how/ when to apply them (CRM, interviews, surveys, reports, etc.).
OBJECTIVES THAT HAVE BEEN MET :
- To know other cluster and other sectors and understand different markets.
- To share knowledge of the different European projects.
- To exchange good practices, lessons learned with other clusters.
- To understand how to establish the cluster strategy. To think about the on-going challenges and to understand how to stablish new strategies trough the study of real cases.
- To understand the importance of monitoring and measuring the cluster´s activities through KPIs.
- To create synergies between clusters.
- To build a strategic and collaborative network
- To test the ClusterXchange programme.
MAFEX SHORT OPINION
We would like to thank for the chance to take part is this exchange program. It was an interesting training program with a well organised structure. Time scheduled was well organised and there were interesting speakers. It gave us the chance to think about strategic points that we do not think about in the daily work. It is a good opportunity to share ideas and to learn from different clusters and ecosystems.
More information : https://smartctclusters.eu/new/update-on-the-smartctclusters-training-programme-for-clusters/