22nd INSME Annual Meeting

“Driving SME Competitiveness: Innovation, Sustainability and Growth”

12-13 October 2026
Crete, Greece

Co-organized with:

 

CONFERENCE THEME

The global competitive landscape is shifting at a pace and scale that leaves little room for hesitation. Technological disruption, environmental imperatives, and the reconfiguration of global value chains are simultaneously raising the bar for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) and redefining what competitiveness means.

At the heart of this transformation lies the convergence of Artificial Intelligence (AI), robotics, and automation. These technologies are proving powerful equalisers, making sophisticated operational and analytical capabilities accessible to firms that previously lacked the scale to develop them in-house. Intelligent systems enable SMEs to streamline production, boost productivity, reduce costs, and respond with greater agility to shifting market demands (OECD, 2026). Alongside this digital frontier, sustainability is emerging as a competitive force in its own right. SMEs that embrace green innovation, circular economy models, and cleaner production meet the growing expectations of consumers, regulators, and value chain partners while unlocking new markets, accessing dedicated financial instruments, and building long-term resilience. Innovation and sustainability, long treated as parallel agendas, are increasingly inseparable drivers of competitiveness.

Yet opportunity does not reach SMEs automatically. Capturing the potential of these twin transitions requires knowledge ecosystems that genuinely work for smaller firms. The connections between SMEs and universities, research centres, technology clusters, and innovation intermediaries remain underdeveloped in many contexts, leaving firms without access to the expertise and applied research that could accelerate their growth. At the same time, access to finance continues to be one of the
most significant structural barriers to SME innovation and internationalisation. Without financial architectures designed for firms of limited scale and collateral blending development bank instruments, venture capital, and public guarantees, the distance between technological possibility and operational reality remains too wide for most SMEs to cross alone. When these conditions are in place, however, the returns extend well beyond the individual firm.

When they grow, innovate, and internationalise, SMEs anchor the territories in which they operate. In many regions, smaller firms are the primary drivers of tourism, cultural identity, and regional attractiveness, sustaining local economies and communities in ways that larger actors cannot replicate. Strengthening SME competitiveness is therefore as much an industrial policy question as a question of inclusive and territorially balanced growth.

The XXII INSME Annual Meeting brings together policymakers, entrepreneurs, researchers, ecosystem builders, and financiers in Crete, Greece, to examine how these pieces fit together. The aim is not to celebrate what technology makes possible, but to build a shared understanding of the conditions that allow SMEs across diverse sectors, regions, and levels of development to turn possibility into enduring competitiveness and broadly shared prosperity.

 

HOST ORGANIZATION

ENTERPRISE GREECE – Enterprise Greece is the national investment and trade promotion agency of Greece, tasked with attracting foreign direct investment and enhancing the international competitiveness of the Greek economy. Through targeted initiatives, international partnerships, and participation in global exhibitions and business missions, the organization promotes Greece as a dynamic business hub while supporting Greek companies in accessing new markets and building international partnerships.

 

 

 

AGENDA

12 October

9:30 – 10:00  Registration and Welcome Coffee

10:00 – 10:30 Opening speeches

10:30 -11:00  Keynote speech

11:00 – 12:00 Panel 1: The New Frontier: AI, Robotics and Automation ad Drivers of SME Competitiveness

The diffusion of AI, robotics, and automation across industries is accelerating, reshaping production processes, service delivery, and competitive dynamics. For SMEs, this shift represents a rare opportunity to close productivity gaps that have historically favored larger firms and access capabilities that were once the exclusive domain of industrial giants. Intelligent systems, collaborative robotics, AI-driven process automation are already enabling smaller firms to reduce costs, minimize errors, scale production, and respond to customization demands with a flexibility that larger organizations struggle to match. However, the distance between this potential and the operational reality of most SMEs remains substantial. Adoption is uneven, shaped by sector, geography, firm size, and the availability of the technical skills and support infrastructure needed to make implementation work. The question is no more whether these technologies can benefit SMEs, but what it concretely takes for small businesses to move from awareness to effective, sustained adoption.

Key questions:

• What are the most effective models for supporting SMEs in moving from technology awareness to practical, sustained adoption of AI and automation?
• How can support institutions, technology providers, and policymakers work together to ensure that the productivity gains of AI and robotics are accessible to SMEs across diverse sectors and geographies?

 

12:00 – 13:00 Panel 2:  Going Green to Grow: Sustainability as a Driver of SME Competitiveness

The green transition is no longer a horizon event. It is reshaping market structures, regulatory frameworks, and competitive dynamics in real time. For SMEs, this creates a dual imperative: adapting to tightening environmental standards and supply chain expectations while simultaneously seizing the market opportunities that the transition is generating. Firms that move early on
green innovation, circular economy models, and cleaner production find that sustainability is not a cost to be managed but a source of differentiation, new revenue, and long-term resilience. The challenge is that most SMEs lack the resources, information, and support structures needed to navigate this transition effectively on their own. Green innovation requires upfront investment, access to specialized knowledge, and the ability to demonstrate environmental credentials to partners and customers – barriers falling disproportionately on smaller firms. Without targeted support, the green transition risks widening the gap between large firms and most SMEs left to adapt alone.

Key questions:

• What policy instruments and support mechanisms are most effective in helping SMEs move from compliance with green standards to active green innovation and market leadership?
• How can financial institutions, public bodies, and value chain actors work together to make the green transition a genuine source of competitive advantage for SMEs rather than a regulatory burden?

 

13:00 Family picture 

13:00 – 14:00 Networking Lunch

 

14:00- 15:00 Panel 3: No Business is an Island: Connecting SMEs with Universities, Research Centers and Clusters

Innovation rarely happens in isolation. The businesses that most successfully navigate technological and market transitions are typically embedded in dense networks of knowledge exchange, mainly universities, research centers, technology clusters, and innovation intermediaries. These key actors accelerate learning, reduce the cost of experimentation, and open doors to new markets and partnerships. For SMEs, such connections can make the difference between incremental improvement and transformative growth. Yet in many contexts, the relationship between SMEs and the knowledge base remains weak, transactional, or entirely absent. Research outputs struggle to reach suitable businesses. Technology transfer mechanisms are designed around large industrial partners. Clusters lack the governance and resources to generate genuine collaboration. Closing these gaps demands institutional models, incentive structures, and intermediary organizations that are explicitly built around the needs and constraints of smaller firms.

Key questions:

• What institutional models and intermediary structures are most effective in building sustained, productive connections between SMEs and universities, research centres, and clusters?
• How can technology transfer mechanisms and collaborative research frameworks be redesigned to serve SMEs rather than defaulting to the needs and timescales of larger industrial partners?

 

15:00 – 16:00 Panel 4: Funding the Future: Building the Financial Architecture for SME Innovation and Scale

Access to finance ultimately determines whether all the other pieces come together. An SME may have the technological capability, the market insight, and the ecosystem connections needed to grow and internationalize, but without adequate, appropriately structured financing, none of it translates into scale. The financing needs of innovative, growth-oriented SMEs are specific: they require instruments that can accommodate limited collateral, longer return horizons, and the risks associated with technology adoption and international expansion. Existing financial architectures were not designed with these firms in mind.
Development bank instruments, venture capital, blended finance mechanisms, and public guarantees are evolving but too slowly, and often without sufficient coordination between public and private actors. Building a financial architecture that genuinely serves SMEs across diverse geographies and development contexts is a question of political will, institutional design, and the readiness of financial actors to share risk in new ways.

Key questions:

• What would a financing architecture purpose-built for innovative, growth- oriented SMEs look like, and how far are current instruments from delivering it?
• How can public development finance institutions and private investors design risk-sharing mechanisms that make SME technology adoption and internationalization a viable and attractive proposition for both parties?

 

16:00-17:00 Panel 5: Rooted and Competitive: SMEs as Drivers of Tourism and Territorial Attractiveness

The contribution of SMEs to economic life extends far beyond their balance sheets. In many regions, smaller firms are the primary architects of territorial identity, cultural vitality, and local attractiveness. They sustain restaurants, artisan workshops, hospitality businesses, creative enterprises, and service providers that make places worth visiting, living in, and investing in. Tourism and regional attractiveness are, in many contexts, SMEs competitiveness’ most visible expression. Nonetheless, this role is rarely recognized in mainstream competitiveness frameworks, and the firms that play it are seldom the primary beneficiaries of innovation and growth support. As digital tools, sustainability expectations, and changing visitor behaviors reshape the tourism and regional development landscape, SMEs in these sectors face significant pressure but also significant opportunity. Capturing that opportunity requires policies, financial instruments, and ecosystem support designed with their specific characteristics and territorial rootedness in mind.

Key questions:

• How can innovation and competitiveness support frameworks be better designed to recognize and strengthen the role of SMEs as drivers of tourism, regional identity, and territorial attractiveness?
• What policy and institutional conditions allow SMEs rooted in local culture and territory to grow, innovate, and internationalize without losing the distinctiveness that makes them competitive?

 

17:00- 17:30 Summary of the outcomes and closing remarks

• Giovanni Zazzerini, Secretary General, INSME, Italy 

  Gala dinner

13 October

9:30 – 10:00 Welcome Coffee 

10:00 – 11:00 INSME General Assembly 

Members of the General Assembly are informed about ongoing and future activities, projects, and achievements, including the INSME 2024 financial statements and the forecast for 2025. Delegates share updates about their projects and initiatives, and new members introduce themselves. During the Assembly, members elect the new governance. 

11:00 – 13:00 Brokerage event

The Brokerage Event is a prime opportunity to connect, collaborate, and innovate with fellow INSME members and partners. Attendees will gain valuable insights into current funding opportunities in the EU and globally, share best practices, and forge new partnerships for ongoing and future project proposals. This event promises a dynamic environment for learning from peers, brainstorming and pitching new initiatives, and driving forward innovative projects.

 

  Cultural experience