Conference „Connecting ecosystems: Bridge. Inspire. Change.”, Romania

The European Cluster Conference on 14-16 May 2019 was took place at the Palace of Parliament in Bucharest, Romania, with more than 450 expected participants representing regional, national and EU policy-makers, cluster organisations, other SME intermediaries and business network organisations and other stakeholders. The event was organised by the European Commission in cooperation with the Romanian Presidency of the Council of the European Union.

The event was a unique chance to hear about recent and future priorities for cluster policies and developments to support a sustainable industrial modernisation and interregional cooperation, with the spotlight on building bridges among the different actors in the cluster community.  The overarching theme of this year’s interactive, participatory conference was “Connecting Ecosystems: Bridge. Inspire. Change.”, with more specific topics being digitalisation and skills gap, circular economy, shared value and social impact.

The conference programme included high-level plenary sessions on the need for clusters of change, panel discussions on fostering strategic interregional collaboration and on linkages across European Commission cluster-related EU initiatives, and interactive sessions where participants will have the chance to share their experiences, best practices and challenges.

The European Cluster Conference also attended a Cluster of Czech Furniture Manufacturers, for whom it was a unique opportunity to establish new contacts and partnerships. The B2B Matchmaking event held on the first day of the conference was also very successful.

The next European Cluster Conference will take place in November 2020 in Berlin under the German Presidency of the EU Council, which will be another opportunity to connect cluster ecosystems.

Participation in the conference was part of the activities of the project “KČN – Cluster Internationalization”, and was financially supported from the Operational Program Enterprise and Innovation for Competitiveness 2014 – 2020, Call IV Program of Support Cooperation – Clusters.

Official Press Release of the Conference HERE