2022

Relator: Carla Jambrina

Carla Jambrina graduates in Economics from the Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona. After her studies spent 3 years in Greece working for humanitarian projects. Then, she returned to Barcelona and became a consultant in business transfer and business valuation expert. Nowadays, she is the coordinator of the “Centre de Reempresa de Catalunya”.

On June 13^th at 2 PM CEST took place in an insightful discussion with Innovate UK KTN, the networking partner of the UK’s Innovation Funding Agency.

The session aimed to provide an insightful discussion on how the adoption of new digital technologies has the power to transform SMEs’ businesses, discussing how SMEs could benefit from the 4Manufacturing toolkit.

4Manufacturing® has been developed and tested by Innovate UK KTN for over five years with hundreds of manufacturing businesses starting out on their digitalisation journeys. They have benefitted from the systematic and clear approach that 4Manufacturing provides to help SMEs prioritise technologies and enable them to deal with key challenges and opportunities.

Agenda:

How the Made Smarter Network drives UK manufacturing innovation:

• The UK manufacturing landscape
• UK government innovation strategy
• Made Smarter Innovation programmes and funding
• Made Smarter Adoption support for SME digitalisation

How the 4Manufacturing toolkit enables digital acceleration:

• For manufacturers: Prioritising specific investment in digital tech and skills
• For advisers: Picturing key aspects of manufacturing processes and relevant technologies
• For programmes: Providing evidence for future programme design

Steven Barr is a chartered engineer with over 35 years of experience of designing, making and the agile implementation of high-tech products and services in manufacturing and the built environment. Before joining Innovate UK KTN, Steven was National Director at the UK’s Manufacturing Advisory Service and founder of EDGE Digital Manufacturing to inspire Digital Breakthrough through cross-business collaboration on technical, organisational, financial and personal challenges and opportunities.

Steven is a member of the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) Manufacturing Policy Panel, and a board member of the not-for-profit Digital Readiness Level cross-industry consortium. He is the lead technical author of British Standard PAS 1040 on Digital Readiness, a guide to adopting digital tech.

Nicole Ballantyne makes targeted links within the manufacturing sector to the right knowledge, partners, technology solution providers, research & academia, facilities, grants and funding with a view to driving productivity, efficiency and economic growth.

Nicole leads on Innovate UK KTN’s support of the “Manufacturing Made Smarter” part of the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund. Her ambition is to grow a vibrant cohesive community of industrial digital technology providers, developers and users across industry and technology sectors. She supports manufacturers to embrace digital technology innovation to grow their business, and technology developers to innovate the best solutions for the manufacturing industry.

As a Chartered Mechanical Engineer with 3 decades of industry experience (from TPM, WCM, SPC to ERP to NPD), Nicole has been involved in a variety of innovation support roles across many sectors (FMCG, O&G, Energy, Water, OEM). She has an eclectic and diverse network of contacts to draw upon.

RCT4MANU 
Innovate UK KTN and Innovate UK are delivering an EU funded project called RCT4MANU (“Test an innovative support scheme for manufacturing SMEs and accelerate the use of Randomised Control Trials (RCTs) in innovation agencies”). As part of this project, we are engaging with UK and EU Innovation and Development Agencies and offer training to use 4Manufacturing® in their business support programmes and build a pan-European network of like-minded business support organisations. The RCT4MANU project is also building experience in the use of RCTs to measure the impact of business support programmes in terms of increased productivity, resilience and sustainability from digitalisation. 


The RCT4MANU Project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 824219. 

Relator: Steven Barr and Nicole Ballantyne

On May 24^th at 3pm CEST took part in an insightful discussion with Value China.

This webinar is going offered a deep dive into the evolution of distribution channels in China, with a focus on FMCG. In particular, it will explain the main aspects to take into consideration while planning an omnichannel distribution strategy in China, sharing insights for selling international products with China.

China is a very attractive destination market for international companies, as shown by the fact that in 2021, China was the largest partner for EU imports of goods (22.4 %). To enter such a huge and competitive market, it is fundamental to have a deep understanding of the peculiarities of this market and establish a clear distribution and promotion strategy.

AGENDA

1. Introduction and market overview
2. Traditional import and retail channels
3. E-commerce platforms
4. Social Commerce
5. Case Study: selling on Xiaohongsh

Vincenza Caputo graduated in International Relations with Asia from the University of Naples “L’Orientale” and during her studies she spent two years in China thanks to CSC scholarship, improving tremendously her Chinese level and achieving HSK6. Following her academic studies, Vincenza specialized in International Business, gaining a professional master’s degree in Export Management from the Italian Trade Agency.

For the past years, she has been living and working in Hangzhou, for a Chinese-Italian JV importing Italian F&B to China. She is now a China’s F&B market expert, specialized in market entry strategies and import procedures for Italian F&B products. From January 2022, she is in charge of project development for Value China, a Sino-Italian consulting, digital marketing and technology agency for the Chinese market, part of the Neosperience S.p.a company (NSP.MI), leading player in Digital Customer Experience.

Relator: Vincenza Caputo