TCI Annual Conference 2009, Jyvalskyla, Finland
The 12th Annual TCI Annual Global Conference entitled Learning Clusters – adapting to the new competitiveness scenario was held in Jyvaskyla, Finland from 12th – 16th October 2009. Approximately 350 delegates from 50 countries attended with large groups from India, Africa and of course Europe. Three delegates [including the ED] came from Australia. One EDA member, David Admans, of Enterprise Connect, was scheduled to attend but had to pull out at the last moment and sent a replacement. See www.clusters2009.com
The Conference began on Monday 12th with a choice of cluster visits to 5 areas around Jyvaskyla. The ED attended the ICT cluster in Tampere, the site of Nokia’s Innovation and Research Centre. On the Tuesday there was an academic summit at the nearby University, with regional meetings held in the afternoon. The main conference was opened at 4:30pm followed by a welcome reception in the city hall.
On Wednesday the main conference commenced with keynote presentations in the morning. After lunch delegates broke into 6 working groups. I attended the one entitled Clusters in a new World which also included the members of the TCI Climate Change group formed in 2008 at thye South African Conference. In the evening delegates were given a choice of seven activities. The ED attended a tour of Design Finland – Architect Alvar Alto’s museum, followed by a walk through the town looking at the many buildings he designed.
The Thursday program started with three keynote speakers till 10 am, and after coffee, a World Cafe was established. In this each table is given a topic, the convenor on each table stays put, but the members move after about thirty minutes. The record on the discussion was written in textra on the tablecloth. This produced many interested and noisy discussions. In the afternoon the Six working groups proceeded and this was followed by a round up session at 4 pm. One delegate from each group presented the summary.
An evening traditional Kalevala night was organised on an island two hours by boat across the lakes from Jyvaskyla. A great time was had by all.
On Friday the AGM of TCI was held, followed by a keynote speaker and a summing up from one of the Keynote speakers. The final act was the transfer of the Conference flag to next year’s host, Dubai, Nov 11th &12th 2010.
During both the academic summit and the main conference a section of the exhibition building was set aside as a Cluster Cafe, done out with comfortable chairs in groups of about 8 around a low table. Many informal and some formal discussions were held during the period on topics related to the program. This was a great way of swapping war stories and learning from others.
In fact the conference organisers in their program had concentrated on maximising the formal and informal learning opportunities for delegates. They had a photographer operating for the five days and each morning, starting Tuesday, released four page colour newsletter of the previous day’s activities. Their publications committee worked all night and the copy went to print at 6 am and was available at 7:30 am each morning.
Copies of these newsletters, conference program, photographs and presentation recordings can be found at www.clusters2009.com
This conference was a very worthwhile activity resulting in my having a long to do list on return. I hope we can utilise some of the elements in NEDC 2010.
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