Published on: Tuesday, 10 November 2015

Tamara Hoegler (CyberForum) and Dr John Hobbs (Cork Institute of Technology) represented the Be Wiser consortium as speakers at the 18th TCI Global Conference which took place from 3rd – 6th November 2015 @ the EXCO International Conference Centre in Daegu, South Korea.

Under the theme of ‘Creative Economy and Cluster; Business Model and Policy Agenda,’ the 18th TCI Global Conference addressed four key themes 1) the strategies and trends of the global creative economy; 2) policies and competitiveness of advanced industry clusters; 3) integration and convergence of industry and clusters; and 4) globalization, internationalisation and entrepreneurship.

In the ‘Successful International Strategies’ session, which included presentations from Ibon Vicente (Orkestra, Spain), Christoph Beer (ICT Cluster Bern, Switzerland) and Gavin Artz (Dept. of State Development, Australia), Tamara Hoegler presented the Business Roaming Agreement www.clusterize.org. The BRA being utilised by the Be Wiser and UPSIDE consortia as a conduit to provide cluster facilitated internationalisation of SMEs across the globe to more than 50 clusters in 30 countries who have signed up to the agreement. Tamara believes “during the TCI conference the Be Wiser representatives met many excellent cooperation partners from all over the world, particularly from Asia and Oceania. We intensified our international contacts by visiting the TCI conference and learnt a lot of new insights on how to enhance international cooperation; we are keen to share and explore these with our cluster members and the Be Wiser consortium.”

Dr John Hobbs at a session titled ‘Internationalisation support for SMEs’ demonstrated Be Wiser Connect http://bewiserconnect.cit.ie an online portal which showcases 70 ICT firms from across Europe. The purpose of this tool is to facilitate introductions and connections between firms from Cyprus, France, Germany, Ireland, Slovenia, Spain and Northern Ireland, in order to promote collaboration and create transactional linkages between ICT clusters. Dr Hobbs explains “TCI was an excellent event in which to share the Be Wiser Connect platform, the conference brings together cluster managers and practioners from across the globe – who can raise awareness of the Be Wiser connect platform to develop leads, targets and sales for the Be Wiser member firms. The co-presenters at the session Merete Daniel Nielsen (Denmark) and Lucia Seel (Austria) were both impressed with Be Wiser Connect, so let’s hope we can develop relationships for our Be Wiser member firms in Austria and Denmark.”

Following the conference, Dr Hobbs will also join the TCI ‘Cluster Policy and Evaluation’ working group, a challenge he is looking forward to. “A lot of exciting work on cluster evaluation and its role in shaping policy across Europe is being undertaken by Madeline Smith (Glasgow School of Art, Scotland), Dr James Wilson (Orkestra, Spain) and Dr Emily Wise (Lund University, Sweden). I’m delighted to join this working group and to bring the experiences and learnings we have gained through applying the V-LINC methodology to 7 clusters across the Be Wiser project.”

Merete Daniel Nielsen, Cluster Excellence Denmark and Dr John Hobbs, Cork Institute of Technology enjoying some of the local culture at the 18th TCI Global Conference in Daegu, South Korea.
	Tamara Hogler, Head of Innovations and International Affairs, CyberForum, and Dr John Hobbs, Cork Institute of Technology, presenters at the 18th TCI Global Conference in Daegu, South Korea.