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Subject:

TCI News letter October 2003

Category:

TCI newsletter

From:

The Competitiveness Institute <bdoesborg[nospamplease]@competitiveness.org>

=========== The Competitiveness Institute Newsletter ==========
News from the cluster practitioners network Subscribe for free: http://www.competitiveness.org
================================================================

A word from the new president
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TCI's 6th Annual Conference in Gothenburg, Sweden exceeded
expectations in many respects. With over 350 participants, it was
more than twice as large as any previous conference. We also
managed several major innovations, detailed in this newsletter.

We published the Cluster Initiative Greenbook, an in-depth
evaluation not of clusters but clustering initiatives. We held
over twenty Learning and Action Workshops, allowing 2 and 3-hour
break-out sessions to dig beneath the surface and learn
interactively about up to 17 different cases simultaneously.

We also convened for the first time an Academic Summit, ensuring
that academic interests were served in a more specialized portion
of the Conference. Finally, a White Book is being prepared that
will capture the key learnings from the conference itself.

The success of the conference rests largely on the contributions
of our Swedish sponsors, and that of the outgoing Executive
Committee of TCI, most of whom have served on that committee
since TCI's inception. This year the Founding Members have all
retired from the Executive Committee, leaving way for new blood,
yet they will continue to serve in new ways on the Board of
Advisors. We all owe them a great debt.
The new Executive Committee has committed itself to ensuring the
sustainability of TCI, while expanding in ways that will serve
our membership in more and better ways.

On behalf of the incoming Executive Committee, it's a great honor
to have the opportunity to play such an active role in serving
the TCI community during this exciting transitional period in our
field.

Stay tuned!

Alec Hansen.

And a word from the past president
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This newsletter heralds the changing of the guard on the TCI
Executive Committee, after a six year involvement by the initial
founders. It was in Chihuahua, Mexico in 1997 at a cluster
conference sponsored by The World Bank and Scottish Enterprise
that a group of five developed the concept of a permanent network
for those around the world with an interest in cluster
development. Emiliano Duch (from Competitiveness.com, Barcelona)
took the lead in establishing TCI, with support from Mike Enright
(University of Hong Kong), Eric Hansen (ECG Inc, San Francisco),
Frederic Richard (UNIDO,Vienna), and myself from Cluster
Navigators Ltd, New Zealand.

We were soon joined on the Executive Committee by Elisabeth Rocha
(BIPE, Paris) and Bob Breault (Breault Research, Tucson, Arizona)
and I would like to acknowledge the considerable time and effort
that this group of seven have put in over the years in building
TCI as "the cluster practitioners network".

In establishing TCI the five initial founders took 10% of the
voting rights each; at Gothenburg this controlling interest was
renounced. TCI is now firmly established, and well able to leave
the incubation care of the initial founders.

Many others have supported TCI's development. I would
particularly like to acknowledge the continuing financial
assistance of the Government of Catalonia, and the contributions
of Professor Antoni Subirą, as Chair of the TCI Board of
Advisors, and Professor Michael Porter.

I will be continuing my involvement through the TCI Board of
Advisors, and offer my best wishes and support to the incoming
team.

Go well!

Ifor Ffowcs-Williams - E4 @ clusternavigators.com

Keynote address by Michael Porter
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Michael Porter gave a keynote address to close the end of TCIs
6th Annual Conference. The presentation outlined the economic
reasoning behind cluster strategy and how it has been greatly
developed over recent years, helping make cluster-based
approaches a widely accepted strategy for economic development.
More » http://www.competitiveness.org/article/view/136

New Executive Committee TCI
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On the 19th September TCI held it's 6th General Assembly at the
annual conference in Gothenburg, Sweden. In this occasion a new
TCI Executive Committee was elected. The members of the committee
represent diverse backgrounds and regions and have committed to
ensuring TCI“s continuity and expanding activities for the
benefit of all members.
More » http://www.competitiveness.org/article/view/134

Preparatory course
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One of the most popular events of the conference was the
preparatory course, which was being offered again in Gothenburg.
This half day programme offered insights to both newcomers and
more experienced practitioners.
More » http://www.competitiveness.org/article/view/138

The Greenbook
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The Cluster Initiative Greenbook was presented at the TCI
conference in Gothenburg. Among other things, it presents the
outcome of a survey of more than 250 cluster initiatives across
the world.
More » http://www.competitiveness.org/article/view/108

Conference pictures
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A selection of pictures taken during the conference.
More » http://www.competitiveness.org/article/view/135

New members
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Philipp Hofmann from Berlin, Germany is a student at the
technical university of Berlin and is in the middle of his
doctoral programm. His investigation focuses on the impact of
Public Private Partnerships on the entrepreneurial and start up
culture inside and outside the campus in the cluster of major
Berlin. Phillip joined TCI out of passion and interest in the
economic effect of clusters and the prosperity of regions.

Oliver Bonkamp from Ennigerloh in Nordrhein-Westfalen (Germany)
is a student of economics on the university of Paderborn and is
interested in clustering.
================================================================
The Competitiveness Institute - http://www.competitiveness.org

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