Created by
Cap Digital in 2009,
Futur en Seine
is an annual festival that presents the latest French and international
digital innovations to professionals and the greater public over the
course of 10 days.
This year they debuted an "Innovation Village" at
CENTQUATRE,
a massive renovated former municipal funeral services building.
[Designed in 1874 in the style of the time, this largely glass, brick
and iron structure, consists of two large halls equipped with hangars,
unloading docks, courts, stables and cellars and is nearly 40,000 square
meters (430,556.40 square feet)! Reopened on October 11th 2008 as a
public institution of cultural cooperation, it's heralded as one of
Paris's new art centers for artistic residencies and exhibits.]
There are conferences, innovative projects, ateliers and more from June 13th to 16th and then throughout the whole
Ile-de-France at various event partners until the 23rd of June.
The first day, June 13, I decided to start my journey into the
futur at the JuiceUP program. This three-hour program was for International clusters in collaboration with the
European Digital Think Tank (EUDTT) and
EIT ICT labs
(European Institute of Innovation and Technology). After a presentation
of the EIT ICT Labs and its soft landing program (presented by Ms.
Isabelle DE SUTTER from Systematic Paris Region), there was a Round
Table on the Internationalization of Small and Medium Enterprises
(SMEs). Then, Cap Digital
CEO Patrick COCQUET
gave a presentation on the EUDTT, followed by another Round Table of
"Networks of clusters and cluster management." The round table
discussions were enhanced by an online interactive workshop using
Stormz.me technology.
Among the clusters present were
Pole Media Grand Paris
Project Manager Axel PATINET, Systematic's European Affairs Manager
Isabelle DE SUTTER, CLand's General Director Marta IZQUIERDO, TSB
Innovations (Berlin) EEN Project Manager Thomas VERMYNCK and University
of Oulu Department of Information Processing Science (Finland) Assistant
Professor Pasi KUVAJA, Pauli Kuosmanen from TIVIT in Finland, Benoit
MICHEL & Pierre COLLIN from TWIST in Belgium, John McALEER from CIT
Cork in Ireland and Santi FORT from Barcelona Media in Spain, although
several arrived late due to the
air strike. Cap Digital's European Projects Manager Nadia ECHCHIHAB led the morning's discussions.
COCQUET started off his presentation with "What is Cap Digital doing for the European Think Tank." Of course
Futur en Seine
is a significant effort as a space for mixing different publics (the
corporate public and the greater larger public) for testing innovation.
They felt it was important to have a relationship with other European
clusters. The activities they focus on are: exchanging market and
strategy information; matchmaking between SME's and labs throughout
Europe; and white papers with the goal to share global vision and work
more efficiently. The common goal of these activities is to create a
cluster of clusters with an European Union-wide ecosystem, with each
cluster managing its ecosystem. Patrick went on to say the Creative and
Cultural Industry (CCI) is a non-traditional sector. Companies
(clusters) within it are creative, have the ability to innovate, are
operating in a knowledge economy, have use of Information and
Communications Technology (ICT) and a high impact on society.
ECHCHIHAB,
lead the participants on a collaborative interaction via Stormz with
"What tools/actions are you using to collaborate with other foreign
clusters?" Answers centered around maintaining personal contacts
(Linkedin) and other meetings/conferences--in particular the
EC ICT event in Vilnius
which is apparently the best event to hear about future projects. (Tip:
book early because there are not a lot of hotels.) VERMYNCK also
mentioned
Republica's ICT Conference on e-governance. He went on to generate a discussion around the differences between the
Enterprise European Network
and the EU Think Tank. He finds he uses the EEN a lot for helping their
companies grow internationally but the women in the room didn't like
using it as much, bringing an understanding to the difficulties in
collaborating because of problems using, and within, the different
networks.
The conversation shifted to how it is difficult for
startups and SMEs to travel on these trade missions abroad because they
cannot afford to be away from their company for weeks, or even days, at a
time. VERMYNCK offered his solution by always booking his missions for
the SMEs with a day (or several afternoons) free. Then he arranges for
his SMEs to work in a co-working space in Berlin so they can still work
while benefiting from the advantages of going on these vital trips.
Time
spent away from the office lead to a discussion around funding issues
in general. VERMYNCK also mentioned Erasmus for Entrepreneurs, which
highlighted the point that Erasmus for business clusters like Cap
Digital and the other organizations at JuiceUP does not exist yet. This
brand new idea was proposed during the session and it is hoped to push
this new idea to the European Commission via Marta Izquierdo who is a
member of the
European Creative Industries Alliance.
Many in the room commented there is too much paperwork for not enough
money. The challenge of having to pay for a stress test (to test the
strength of the cluster) was not well received either. The cost to
receive a label (ex: Gold label, Bronze label) was thought to perhaps
not be worth the thousands of euros spent on it. A final comment was
that Clusters (not consultants) should train clusters. Clusters learn
best from others who have walked the walk, not just someone who is
talking the talk.
Of course, afterwards, there was much talk --
and networking. For this writer, this was a very insightful session
where I learned a lot about a whole new environment and level of
activity with the focus on development and innovation.
