Businesses from seven countries gathered in Oslo
Black Sea Energy Cluster participated in the Norway Grants conference and the accompanying events in Norway
Norway Grants conference and business matchmaking on Modern Production and Smart Societies from March 14th until 16th 2017 brought insights on innovation and technology and helped to forge potential business partnerships.
Not long from now, in early 2018, the first calls for proposals under the new programme period of the EEA Financial Mechanism will be announced. Opportunities will be plenty for those who have relevant project ideas and, in particular, for those who have found each other to collaborate in a bilateral partnership.
The previous programme has brought a lot of new competences and international parterships within industry and innovation. Those are factors that may form the basis for new successful partnerships.
In an attempt to create synergies and spill-over from knowledge and experience gathered in the past years, as well as showcasing some Norwegian industrial cases, a conference on modern industry and smart societies was organised in Oslo in March 2017.
Around 75 companies from seven countries attended. They came to gain insights into more strategic topics such as Norwegian industrial and innovation policy, cluster policy and -programmes, but also to learn about Norwegian expectations towards clients, successful business cases, and take a peek at one or another innovative solutions at the forefront of their own disciplines.
But what they got was even more: a professional Brokerage Event / B2b matchmaking event hosted by Enterprise Europe Network Norway – “a unique opportunity to meet with potential future partners and explore possibilities for cooperation”, as Eli Bleie Munkelien, Director of Business Partnerships, Innovation Norway, put it.
Three hours of the event were dedicated to speed-dating potential business partners for future collaborations. The matchmaking was indeed very successful – at least in numbers: all in all, 65 meetings took place between Norwegian companies and companies from an EEA partner country and 55 meetings took place between companies from the six EEA partner countries.
What is a Brokerage Event?
At a matchmaking event people meet and greet at high speed. Bilateral meetings take usually 20 or 30 minutes, which is usually enough to forge business/research/technological connections.
Each participant registers with a cooperation profile which will be displayed at the event website. Each participant can online select meetings with other participants they would like to personally talk to.
A few days before the event, each participant will receive a meeting schedule, showing who he will meet when and where. This has proven a successful way to find international business partners. The organisor of the matchmaking was Enterprise Europe Network Norge.
On day 2 of the conference, most of the participants separated into three groups who went off to three different excursions – one going to Gjøvik and Raufoss to see examples from top-notch Norwegian industrial milieus, another going to the technology and innovation capital of Norway, Trondheim, and a third one visiting Stavanger, considered by many as the most advanced Norwegian “smart city”.
Representatives of the Black Sea Energy Cluster took part in the excursion to Gjøvik, having visited the Norwegian University of Science and Technology and the industrial cluster NCE Raufoss.
See the presentations from the conference in Oslo:
Eli Bleie Munkelien – Good business practice
Per Koch Dream Commitment – Innovation Policy
Olav Bardalen Smart Communities
Bjørn Arne Skogstad Industrial Strategies
Espen Warland Norwegian Innovation Clusters
Ingvild von Krogh Strand Strategic Business Development
Stavanger excursion:
Gjøvik excursion:
Trondheim excursion:
Torkel Ystgaard International Development Norway
