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On July 16-20, 2007, Mesopartner is organizing the third Summer Academy on Local Economic Development in Duisburg, Germany.

As one of a series of publications produced under the Innovation America initiative, the new National Governor's Association's Innovation America guide by Dr. Stuart Rosenfeld (president of Regional Technology Strategies, Inc.) examines what cluster strategies work best in a changing and challenging global economy.

"Nosce te ipsum", know yourself. This is one of the core messages contained in the interview with Prof. Becattini on clusters and regional development policies presented at TCI's last annual conference in Lyon 2006. In this occasion, in fact, the participants had the priviledge to see a video with the father of the "industrial districts" concept recorded just some weeks before in Florence, Italy, by Emiliano Duch, member of the Board of Advisors.

Creative Clusters 2007, the fifth international conference on the creative economy, takes place between Friday 9th and Wednesday 14th November, in locations across London that are home to world-leading creative enterprises and culture-led regeneration projects.

An extraordinary special event is to be held on Wednesday evening, October 10th: A free performance of the play "Salmonpeople", sponsored by ShoreBank Pacific, about the interdependence of salmon and people in the Pacific Northwest.

A feasibility study - sponsored by SPEED Ghana (GTZ/Danida) carried out by Innogate Inc (Thomas Winther, TCI Commissioner West Africa) in collaboration with The Danida Centre, University of Ghana Business School recommends that innovation and competitiveness is encouraged through active facilitation in the following three emerging clusters in Ghana:

At the Annual Conference in Lyon 2006, cluster practitioners and other stakeholders from business, academia, government and development partners in 8 African countries took the first steps towards "The Pan-African Competitiveness Forum", a collaborative platform for exchange of experiences and mutual learning on cluster initiatives. With the mission to improve living standards and local competitiveness of regions across the world by further development of national and regional cluster initiatives, TCI is committed to work for the implementation of the following agenda during the period of 2007-09.

Initial list of Members of the Pan-African Competitiveness Forum:

As a precursor to TCI's Annual Global Competitiveness Conference in Portland (October 8-12, 2007), the world's first Symposium on Clusters and Sustainable Economic Development was hosted in Portland by TCI and the State of Oregon on May 3-4, 2007. The Symposium offered a unique chance to interact and network before the Annual Conference, and aimed to address important issues when it comes to linking clustering and sustainability.

A lunchtime seminar on "US Government Foundations: Making a Difference in Latin America and Africa", held by The SME Department and the Grassroots Business Initiative, will take place on March 27, 2007. The Seminar will provide further insight on the life-changing work of the Inter-American Foundation in frontier regions, programs delivered by the US African Development Foundation and why the IFC should partner with these.