2022

Speakers Francesco Camonita and Carina Dantas (CEO of SHINE 2Europe), discussed the insights from the study: “Crisis Costs for Europeans SMEs” carried out on behalf of the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC), developed by Wise Angle and SHINE 2Europe with INSME’s support.
The COVID-19 pandemic has become the landmark for one of the greatest economic shocks ever experienced. As such, many SMEs were exposed to financial and employment-related losses, especially in the retail and tourism sector. In the light of this, the EESC study analysed six SMEs challenges that will be presented and thoroughly discussed as well as recommendations for future policymakers. 

Relator: Dr. Francesco Camonita

Dr. Francesco Camonita is a researcher and project Manager at Wise Angle Consulting, Barcelona. He holds a Ph.D. in Geography (European Studies), an MA in European Integration (both from the Autonomous University of Barcelona) and a BA in International Relations with Spanish (Swansea University, UK). Francesco holds 9+ years of working experience as a university researcher, lecturer and research support specialist. He is still a regularly invited lecturer for the Departments of Geography, Political Science and the Faculty of Law at UAB. At Wise Angle, he coordinates research activities for service contracts while performing management functions for multiple R&D projects.

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”.

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

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. 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.

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

Relator: Vincenza Caputo

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.

When we refer to Artificial Intelligence (AI) we are using short hand to define technologies including natural language processing, image recognition, machine learning (ML), data analytics, cognitive computing, and more. Many observers argue that this AI space has the potential to change everything from industrial processes to social media networks in use today, and for all our futures to be defined by access to these systems.Likewise when we think of Robots we are considering quickly deployable, task-agnostic, smaller, mobile machines that accompany humans at work or at play. Both AI and Robots reflect a radically transformative world of production and service provision through industrial automation. The technological shift that is occurring affects large, medium and small firms, but in different ways. As the world of business relies increasingly on small runs, fast logistics, and flexible operations, how will SMEs be affected? How can the SME population take advantage of these shifts given their resource constraints? This webinar will explore how these new, dynamic technologies can enhance the SME effect positively by being ‘smarter’, ‘healthier’ and ‘richer’ firms equipped with productive AI and Robots. It will also investigate how SME owner-managers can prepare for the disruption of jobs that SMEs specialize in, data management, supply chains, dependence on larger firm contracts, and reduce the threat of being part of a business digital divide of ‘haves’ and ‘have nots’ in accessing and using these technologies.

Relator: Prof. Jay Mitra

Jay Mitra is Professor of Business Enterprise and Innovation and Director of the Venture Academy at Essex Business School, University of Essex. He has acted as a Scientific Adviser to the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) as the Head of the Scientific Committee on Entrepreneurship for the OECD’s Centre for Entrepreneurship and the LEED (Local Economic and Employment Development) Programme at its Trento Centre and in Paris. He is a Visiting Scholar at the University of Luneburg, Germany, a has been a Visiting Professor at University Externado, Colombia, the Institute of Management Technology, India, the School of Management, Fudan University, and the School of Public Policy at Jilin University, both in China, and at Bologna University, Italy. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts in the UK. Jay Mitra also leads the International Entrepreneurship Forum (IEF) a unique network and forum for researchers, policy makers and business practitioners working on entrepreneurship, innovation and regional development issues (http://ieforums.org). He is the editor of the new Journal of Entrepreneurship and Innovation in Emerging Economies’ published by Sage.