Be#na Simonsen Man. Director Development Centre UMT & Innonet Lifestyle- Interior & Clothing www.innonetlifestyle.com
Match Making for Innovation Being a small country Denmark has a grounded tradition for international partnerships. This is also the case within interior & clothing where Danish designers have a strong profile as innovators and more than 80% of the turn over comes from overseas markets.
2 min. background: - A cluster since 2002, originally for wood and furniture - Contacted by the clothing and fashion industry more lifestyle oriented - 2 offices Herning and Copenhagen, 11 employees - 12 Board of Directors members industry organizations, regional government, knowledge institutions and companies - 10 consortium partners - knowledge institutions - 62 Dialog companies - 272 comitted companies - 498 non-comitted companies Focus areas: Innovation and Design, New Materials, Future Trends (new technologies), Sustainability, Fashion and Re/etail
Internationalization: 2009-2011 Phd. Project: Posi/on and Reposi/oning in Networks Exemplified by the Transforma/on of the Danish Pine Furniture Manufacturers SALLA LUTZ, CBS / Copenhagen Business School Visits from: Clusters from Estonia, Poland, Kaliningrad, Italy, Japan - Joint projects - Delega#on visits and matchmaking ac#vi#es
2011: Cluster Conference: The interna#onalisa#on handbook & matchmaking mee#ngs - and introduc#on of Innova#on Express Workshop with Rodin Genoff with consor#um partners, industry organisa#ons and selected companies Par#cipa#on in trade delega#ons, EU projects and JOIN project- www.join.dk
INTERNATIONAL CLUSTER COOPERATION: The JOURNEY Lithuania- Sweden- Finland- Poland- Latvia Implement Projects Take Ac-on Japan Measure Success Use Networks Sustain the networks Outward facing Global cluster Office overseas? Develop Trust & Projects Germany- Turkey- Russia U-lise Funding Iden#fy Partners China Implement Training Get Ready Create Strategy & Ac#on Plan Quarterly Updates Budget & Financing Inward looking Local Cluster Why Interna#onalise? Workshop with Rodin Genoff Assess Readiness Iden#fy Opportuni#es Iden#fy Competences Incoming Opportuni#es Interna#onaliza#on strategy: - DDAI www.ddai.dk - Industry Organiza#ons - Dialogue Companies
Finding the right partners many roads to success: Japan: early contacts in network and large project China: Innovation Center Hong Kong, cultural fair and meetings Sweden, Finland, Lithuania, Latvia and Poland: Through Baltic project Comfort in Living Germany, Turkey: Though matchmaking meetings in Copenhagen 2011 Kaliningrad/Russia: Project though The Danish Federation of SMEs
Learning curve Failures: - Visit to China once is almost like saying we do not care - Even if partners have a strong urge to go at pre meetings it is another story when they have to take 3 days out of their schedule. The theme of the trip was too abstract :Design Thinking and Berlin - Personal contact when they dissappear, language barriers- Kaliningrad/Russia.
Thank you very much and good luck with internationalization it is a lot of fun and hard work -We are still interested in new collaborations and hope to meet you at the matchmaking event later on.