II Jornada de Clusters Urbans ,

Was celebrated this past February 8 in Barcelona hosted by 22@Barcelona , CIDEM and Promoció Econòmica de l’Ajuntament de Barcelona. The main objective of the city of Barcelona is to enhance through 22@, a innovating economical and urban restorer organism, its competitiveness by working with energy, media, technologies, Med-Tec and ICT clusters. Almost 500 local and international visitors, government officials and experts joined together for this gathering. Elisabet Juan was invited to talk about our collaboration in the ICT strategic plan propelled by Fundacion Barcelona Digital. The presentation was followed by a lecture by Stuart Webb, Head of Clusters Innovation and Politics TIC - Advantage West Midlands . Then a debate and conclusions, moderated by Miquel Mateu ( Head of the Promoció Econòmica Interior. Ajuntament de Barcelona) with intervention of Vincenç Gasulla, Head of Fundació Barcelona Digital, Carles Gómara, Innovations manager – CIDEM and Oriol Alcoba, Manager of Project development - 22@ Barcelona.

The European Presidency Conference on Innovation and Clusters was held in Stockholm on 22-23 January 2008, under the helm of the Slovenian Presidency of the EU. As one of the core publications of the event, The Cluster Competitiveness Group project team prepared an analysis on the potential of 25 European clustering efforts for promoting innovation and competitiveness. The report got a huge success, and was distributed to over 300 participants of the event. The leader of the case study work, Emiliano Duch, held a round table on the case study learning for some 110 participants in an overcrowded room.

The key case study question on whether the analysed clustering efforts have helped move the companies towards new market and knowledge relationships is particularly important now that the use of clustering tools is becoming widespread, sometimes in the hands of people who confuse the tool with the goal, i.e. institutionalising "officially recognized clusters", risking that companies, and specially intermediary institutions and associations, see that as an achievement, rather than as an important tool to develop innovation and competitiveness. The report is also available online .

To get a clearer picture of this important presentation, you can log in directly to hear what Emiliano Duch had to say to the European Policy Makers and Cluster associations in Stockholm

• To view Emiliano Duch`s presentation ( Look under the titles: Round tables 23rd January / World Class Cluster Case

Also, you can watch Professor Michael E. Porter of The Institute for Strategy and Competitiveness (Harvard Business School) presentation in Stockholm

• To view Professors Michael Porter's speech. Look under: Clusters, Innovation and Competitiveness

Competitiveness has been officially awarded a contract to implement a competitiveness programme in Northern Chile. Our team will be tutoring and transferring methodology to CORFO professionals implementing real competitiveness reinforcement initiatives in 7 sectors of the Northern regions. Ines Sagrario will be supervising the project.

Competitiveness has helped BioRegió de Catalunya, Barcelona Media and Fundació Barcelona Digital elaborate their strategy plans for the next 4 years regarding the new Innovative Companies' Programme promoted by Madrid. The Programme is aimed at fostering innovation and collaboration amongst companies and link them to international networks and research centres. Elisabet Juan was working in the project together with  Alessandra Chevallard, Ines Sagrario and Carlos Tarrason.

80 manufacturers, retailers and other players from the State of Mexico Textile sector participated in the initial presentation of the project that took place in Toluca. The project aims at helping companies devise new strategies that are sustainable and face the increasing cost competition from China. Julien Lehmann and Gabriel Mas from Competitiveness are helping a local team.