European Cluster Conference 2016

  • 30 Nov 2016 to 02 Dec 2016

The European Commission’s Directorate General for the Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs is pleased to announce that the European Cluster Conference 2016 will be held in Brussels on 30 November – 2nd December 2016. The conference will take place on 1-2 December 2016 at the Crowne Plaza Hotel with a European cluster matchmaking pre-event on 30 November 2016.

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Agenda and Presentations

The draft programme will be announced in the course of September 2016.

Practical Information

When
30 Nov 2016 to 02 Dec 2016
Registration Information
The event will be free of charge for participants. Registration will be open from September 2016.

Description

The fifth edition of the European Cluster Conference will be an inspiring event not to be missed by policy-makers from national and regional authorities involved or interested in cluster policies and cluster practitioners. The last edition of the European Cluster Conference in 2014 gathered over 340 cluster stakeholders from across Europe. As the 2016 edition is limited to 250 participants, early registration is advised – once this will become available.

 

This year's conference will focus on Cluster 4.0 – Shaping Smart Industries and include high-level plenary speeches, panel discussions and interactive sessions where participants will have the chance to share their experience and challenges. Parallel discussions will take place in four priority areas related to industrial modernisation, namely smart manufacturing and digital transformation, the circular economy, key enabling technologies, and creative and data-driven services. The parallel discussions will all cover the same key horizontal topics in different sessions. These include the role of clusters in boosting the innovation uptake and growth opportunities through strengthening cross-sectoral value chain linkages, strategic European partnering, international collaboration and skills towards shaping smart industries.

 

Trends and priorities for cluster policies and cluster organisations in Europe will be discussed in interactive ways. The European Cluster Observatory will present its 2016 European Cluster Panorama and the latest information on cluster support initiatives in relation to industrial modernisation will be shared. Model Demonstrator Regions, European Strategic Cluster Partnerships – Going International and other cluster initiatives will share their lessons learned. The Conference will also let participants have their say on who to select for the 2016 European Cluster Manager of the Year Award and the 2016 European Strategic Cluster Partnership of the Year Award.

 

In conjunction with the European Cluster Conference, the European Cluster Collaboration Platform is organising a large-scale European cluster matchmaking event that will be held as a pre-event on 30th November 2016, also in Brussels. This will be a unique opportunity for European Clusters to explore common areas of interest for cooperation and build complementarities in terms of sectoral, value chain and market focus. The first European cluster matchmaking event organised in 2014 in conjunction with the European Cluster Conference gathered over 80 cluster organisations from 18 countries and led to a total of 170 inter-cluster meetings.

 

More information about the cluster matchmaking event will also soon be made available on the European Cluster Collaboration Platform: www.clustercollaboration.eu.

Contact

You can keep up-to-date by visiting the EU Cluster Portal: http://ec.europa.eu/growth/smes/cluster/index_en.htm and by registering to receive the European Cluster Observatory newsletter by contacting Camille Duran c.duran@inno-group.com.