1st Week of Cluster Excellence Training in Turkey

Turkey on the way to cluster excellence: Aegean Exporters' Associations organized the first Cluster Excellence Training in Turkey

Cluster Excellence Trainers from the Aegean Exporters’ Associations, who are Certified Trainers by the European Foundation for Cluster Excellence, held the first week of the Cluster Excellence training ever organized in Turkey. Participants of the course came from Ministries, Regional Development Agencies, Cluster Organizations and Chambers from across the country. They will follow a six-month program allowing them to become the first Cluster Excellence Managers  - certified by EFCE and approved by the European Commission - trained in Turkey.

Under the patronage of Reza Zadeh, CEO of EFCE, and Jorgen Rosted, former Permanent Secretary at the Danish Ministry of Business Affairs, participants obtained first-hand and detailed information on regional competitiveness programs, cluster initiatives screening, cluster economics and cluster policy evaluation. The classes imparted with the proven case-based teaching methodology, provided attendees with many examples and real-life situations to reflect upon.

The training will continue for 6 months with the study of three complete in-class modules. Each participant will also work on a field-project, designing strategies for the future of their industries and regions.

CDCM Consortium Conference

The first Cluster Excellence Management trainers from Turkey, Iceland and Poland got certified

The Capacity Development for Cluster Managers (CDCM) consortium completes the training period conducted by the EFCE and presents its own implementation plan, based on the knowledge acquired during the Train-the-Trainers programme.

On the occasion of the Cluster Excellence Conference “Cluster 2.0”, more than 250 participants, consisting of practitioners, policy makers and representatives of private sector from all around Turkey, met last 28th of November in Izmir (Turkey) to discuss clusters and competitiveness.

The conference was organized by the Capacity Development for Cluster Managers (CDMC), one of the four consortiums supported by the European Commission through a Competitiveness and Innovation Programme (CIP) Call. The consortium is formed by the Icelandic Centre for Research (RANNIS), the Rzeszow Regional Development Agency (PARR) and the Aegean Exporters' Associations, who serves as coordinator.

In addition to focusing on consolidating and developing strategies for success in the field of economic clusters, this event also served to celebrated the completion by the project partners of the 6-month long Train-the-Trainers programme delivered by the Foundation. They were awarded the Associate Trainer certification, which now enables them to run the Cluster Excellence Management training programmes offered by EFCE.

The conference culminated with the announcement of the upcoming start of the first Turkish Cluster Excellence Management training. The piece of news attracted widespread interest among participants, especially from the Regional Development Agencies present on that day.

The conference featured the interventions of high level speakers:

• Mr. Bartlomiej Bodio, member of the Polish Parliament and Chairman of the Polish Parliamentary Group for Cluster Policy.
• Mr. Yavuz Ozutku, Deputy General Manager in charge of the Cluster Policy for the Turkish Ministry of Economy.
• Mr. Ekin Taksin, project coordinator of the CDMC Consortium.
• Mr. Reza Zadeh, Executive Director at EFCE.

ATC4 Excellence Conference finalizes the CIP CALL program

On the 21th and 22nd of November, Santiago de Compostela hosted the closing session of the CIP CALL program for the ATC4 Excellence consortium. A round-table and keynote lectures marked this special day.

ATC4 Excellence is one of the four consortiums from across Europe that participated in the CIP CALL training program, directed and coordinated by the European Foundation for Cluster Excellence. The ATC4 Excellence consortium is composed by members from institutions of economic development from Ireland, northern Portugal and the Spanish regions of Galicia, Cantabria and Asturias.

During the two days, leaders of the participating organizations, as well as political and business officials, shared their knowledge and experiences related to their participation in the project.

Among the conferences held, the round-table entitled “Achieving the excellence in clusters” proved to bring food for thought to the audience. Its protagonists were Gloria Ferrer, from the European Foundation for Cluster Excellence, Florian Plocek, from the Cluster Collaboration Platform (CCP) and Helmut Kergel, from the European Secretariat for Cluster Analysis (ESCA).

Another highlight came with the lecture of keynote speaker Antoni Subirà, President of EFCE, and with the case studies presented by former participants in the Foundation's Train-the-Trainers training programme:

• Claire Davis (SWRA) presented her project on Wedding tourism in Ireland.
• Monika Marr (SODERCAN), Clara García and Jaime Fernández (IDEPA) presented their project on Gourmet food in Cantabria and Asturias.
• Manuel Fernández (IGAPE) presented his project in Textile in northern Portugal and Galicia.

This conference concluded the participation of ATC4 Excellence in the CIP CALL program with an excellent rating from the organization.