20th EBN Congress Newsletter

Looking for smart innovation ecosystems powered by smart innovation enablers 26 July 2011

The 20th EBN/RETIS congress was the occasion to put the emphasis on those BICs, those incubators who have succeeded in going through this digital wave of transformation that has affected the whole world in an un-preceding way.  As a network of local/territorial enablers in innovation where do we position ourselves in this global challenge? How to find our place in this new “age” with the urgent need to be increasingly connected globally yet offer solutions to territorial, place-based issues and realities?

It is clear that some of our colleagues have already gone quite a long way in this digital process through the accompaniment of start-ups that have already or will soon become leaders in their niche.  But we must admit that there remains a long way to go for the majority of us if we want to offer solutions to territorial, place based issues and realities.  This has always been the task of the BICs: to try to align constantly to the new needs that arise and to push forward these new ideas that do contribute to this new collective intelligence and to the European economy through local actors such as what's happening for example in a territory such as Toulon in the Var department, thanks to TVT, the local BIC and the other surrounding innovation stakeholders..

At the centre of this transformation must be indeed effective leading communities of professional enablers, organized in open networks (and I stress OPEN) such as EBN (at the European level), RETIS (at the French national level), and TVT (at the regional & local levels). We will never have the whole system working without the parts and single constituents interacting.

BICs, Incubators (Innovation & Technology-based), Science & Technology parks, Competitive Clusters, Innovation Agencies and others, must continue to press on as the real accelerators of entrepreneurial innovation, of converting our European creativity into products on markets, producing wealth and jobs, generating applied innovation, the solution to many of the afore-mentioned, local issues and realities.

As business models adapt, as new generations of smart entrepreneurs emerge, as collective intelligence flourishes, innovation clearly shifts to a world of applications, a world in which the names of the game are: an adequate perception of the end-users, a search of open innovation through collaborative networking and the adoption of new model to capture creativity and take it to market.

Strongly affected by the digital economy revolution, this smart growth and collective intelligence challenge requires diverse ecosystems in which talents & skills are boosted by creativity & connectivity. They must be allowed to flourish to the maximum, achieve their true potential, achieve multiplier effects from the interaction and produce Human capital that can be smart & special, deploying smart specializations, delivering the “real stuff” at the end of the magical supply-chain: Indeed in this congress you have found & met some of those concrete stories of entrepreneurial success. Entrepreneurs who create companies, jobs, and wealth … create hope and a future.

This is, I believe, is what is at the core of the Updated European policies and initiatives such as the new "Innovation Union Innovation targets" and "Digital agenda" flagship initiatives, as well as the search for better "Smart Specialization Strategies" (S3), a concept recently promoted by DG Regio, as a fantastic accelerator for our communities, our Regions and our natural, territorial groupings.

In this context, an integrated framework for the deployment of innovation policies at the territorial level, are well-structured "regional innovation strategies" (RIS). Take a bow PACA region and your stakeholders, you have shown the way with "PACA innovation".

Looking at other territories and regions, EBN/RETIS members and their collaborators in Science and Technology Parks, Science-based Incubators and others were never better positioned as specialized enablers of the applied innovation process in the entrepreneurship market at territorial levels, through the delivery of a globally benchmarked comprehensive range of professional support services addressed to the needs of the next generation of innovative start-ups, spin-offs, entrepreneurs and SMEs … and indeed to our many partner intermediaries and  partner institutions.

EBN & RETIS networks members never stop ... creating ... searching for new and better ways to do things, to be better applied innovation enablers, to network with the smarter, the more talented, the more skilled, to be equipped with better tools, to join new and improved collaborative groups, to reach out, to remain OPEN. This is our self improvement process. This is our self perpetuated quality assurance, self perpetuated global benchmarking and the only way is UP!

Our attention was focused during this congress on emerging areas of business applications in creative industries and emerging ways and systems by which we can serve the needs of these inspired entrepreneurs even better. We have lived together with the major innovation stakeholders, a showcase of our fantastic European diversity, blended beautifully with a number of non-european speakers and delegates coming from the US, Canada, Russia, Taiwan, South-Africa, Lebanon, Palestine, Jordan, Tunisia, Morocco ... and how can I forget the French overseas territories Martinique, Guyana, la Reunion ! Nor do I forget other 'innovation islands'  such as Canarias, Madeira, Corsica, Sardinia, Sicily, Baleares ... the UK and indeed ... Ireland …where our applied innovation community is stronger than ever despite economic conditions. DigiBICs finalists, the real innovators, the real inspired entrepreneurs have brought reality into our ways of thinking, of doing!

"Ní neart go cur le chéille" is an old saying/proverb in my mother tongue. It means "together we are stronger". The next big idea will, no doubt, come from outside of me, outside of you perhaps. Are we sufficiently well networked to be part of it? This is the opportunity, from Toulon 2011 to Lappeenranta 2012, picking new ideas, initiating new projects, connecting your companies, making new friends & enlarging your network, re-thinking your business model ...

Hope you enjoyed the time and the work together in Toulon, push the EBN open doors of this active applied innovation community, join us and be inspired, get networked, do accelerate !

Enjoy your summer break,

Joe Greaney,
EBN President

Nominated in the category of « Social networks, the connecting journey » – we won the DigiAwards at EBN Congress in Toulon, as practicer in new digitals tools.