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Basque Country Interregional event 20th Oct.
Presentations available in Events page

"Construction Market Monitoring" conference in Warsaw 27th October 2009
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"Related Projects" section added to the Links Page
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EVENTS

One of the strategic objectives set for REG CON is R&D based cluster formation in three carefully selected sub- areas of construction in Poland, Greece and Spain.

First step to achieve this objective will be to inform and mobilize the potential cluster stakeholders. For this purpose early communication workshops will be organised in each country with the aim to validate the conclusions drawn and the methodology developed, set the background and the foundation for the cluster development (in its operation, legislative, administrative and financial layout).

As the next step, and having Action Plans for clusters already development defined, three regional workshops and one inter-regional workshop (in a form of a conference) will be carried out in an effort to publicise the cluster activities and to promote the REG CON good practice publication entitled „R&D driven Construction Clusters in action”.

Events will be organised by REG CON Partners from Poland, Greece and Spain in close cooperation with mentoring Partners from Finland and Slovenia

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Info on coming events

 

 

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Reports from past events

TOWARDS THE CREATION OF A CONSTRUCTION CLUSTER IN THE BASQUE COUNTRY REG CON Regional event 14th January 2010

Euskalduna Conference Centre, Bilbao
Thursday, 14th January 2010

The REG CON Regional event “Towards the creation of a construction cluster in the Basque Country” was held at Euskalduna Conference Centre in Bilbao on the 14th of January, from 4:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. Around 80 participants attended the event, as well as Basque Television and several newspapers. The main aim of the event was to explain the audience the intention of setting up the cluster, after the work done in the Innovation/Industrialization Forum, and to attract possible leaders for the cluster.

The Housing Direction of the Housing Department of the Basque Government bet on opening the initiative to the whole sector. In result, different companies of the value chain of the construction industry were invited -apart from companies involved in the Forum- such as construction companies, building material companies, Architecture Studios, Technology Centres, Universities, Professional Associations and Employers Associations.

First of all, the Director of Housing summarized the work done and explained the objectives of the new government. Secondly, Juan Manuel Esteban from the Industry Department of the Basque Government spoke about the advantages and value of being a cluster member. Begoña Sánchez from Labein-Tecnalia explained to the audience how REGCON can contribute to set up the Construction Cluster in the Basque Country, as well as showing the cases of Finland and Slovenia. We also had the opportunity to know more about the successful Telecommunications Cluster of the Basque Country, GAIA. Finally, the Director of Housing talked about the Work Plan for the next six months, the next steps towards the creation of the Construction Cluster of the Basque Country.

Conclusions

The construction sector is a traditional industry with low rate in absorbing innovation. What’s more, it lacks trust and collaboration. Clustering will give the sector the chance to improve competitiveness by means of trust and sharing knowledge.

The event was really fruitful as we could once again perceive a positive tendency of the sector towards setting up the Construction Cluster in the Basque Country. The speakers conveyed to the audience the benefits of being a cluster member, but they also emphasized that it is important to understand it is a medium-long investment which requires commitment.

Agenda

Presentations:
Presentación inicialv01.pdf
Esteban_CLUSTERs 140110.pdf
Begoña_REG CON.pdf
Tomás_ GAIA.pdf
Presentación finalv01.pdf

 

 

CONSTRUCTION MARKET MONITORING 2009!
Role and of significance of clusters in building company position on the market

On the 27th October 2009 r. ASM – Market Research and Analysis Center in Kutno is organising 12th edition of „Construction Market Monitoring” conference. The Conference will be held in Lord Hotel in Warsaw, Krakowska 218 Street, from 10:30 to 16:45

Construction Market Monitoring is organised on an annual basis in order to summarise the construction performance and present the current trends and forecasts for construction market development on the basis of the latest economic and sociological analyses and market research.
This year following topics will be raised:

More information on Construction Market Monitoring 2009

Information on the conference and the Polish cluster “Construction of Central Poland”:

Agnieszka Kowalska                                                                    Aleksandra Oleksik
agnieszka.kowalska@asm-poland.com.pl                          a.oleksik@asm-poland.com.pl
tel. +48 (24) 355 77 54                                                               tel. +48 (24) 355 77 56

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The REGCON interregional workshop took place in the Basque Country Region, at the main building of the Bizkaia Technology Park (Building number 100), on the 20th of October.

Agenda

Presentations:

1 DEARLE_clusters ROK.pdf
2 KOWALSKA REG CON_Projec.pdf
3 OLARIAGA Basque cluster.pdf
4 ESTEBAN cluster policy.pdf
5 ESTEBAN TCI network.pdf
6 YFANTI REG CON_Apintech.pdf
7 PEREZ Cluster Extremadura.pdf
8 R MARIBONA ECTP REGCON.pdf
9 USOBIAGA PRESTO.pdf
10 BONILLA R&D in construction.pdf
11 CHICA Industrialisation.pdf

The interregional event Construction Clustering in Action took place on 20th of October 2009 at Bizkaia Technology Park Headquarters, from 9:00 a.m. to 15:45 p.m. The workshop offered a great opportunity to learn more about the opportunities offered by clustering to innovate and to better face the downturn situation in which Europe is immersed in. Particular clustering experiences in the construction sector across Europe were shared there and special attention was paid to industrialisation of the construction sector, one of the topics chosen by the local cluster initiative. The workshop was addressed to any construction sector player that is eager to network, collaborate and innovate in order to get ready for the new demands and conditions that might come up once the current downturn period is over, as well as to policy makers who are in charge of launching or implementing cluster policies in their regions.

Event Summary:

Around 100 participants attended the event. In addition to the REG CON and PRESTO partners, construction sector key agents at local level attended the event.
The conference was divided into four different sessions:

  1. Basque Country, a dynamic reality: Basque cluster policy was presented and the maturity of the regional construction cluster initiative shared with the audience
  2. Clustering, a tool to support SMEs competitiveness through the creation, transfer and management of know-how and technology: In addition to the construction cluster in Crete promoted under REGCON and the Construction Cluster in Extremadura, the TCI Network was also presented.
  3. National and international networking and collaboration: Inter-cluster collaboration, National and European Technology Platforms: PRESTO project and the ECTP were subject of presentation
  4. Industrialisation of the construction sector: ACCIONA Infraestructura and LABEIN Tecnalia shared their capacities in this topic with the audience

An exhibition of posters presenting clusters that has been set up in the framework of REG CON project (Polish, Greek and Spanish) plus posters of already existing Finish and Slovenian construction clusters has been organised in the lobby of the conference room. You can download the posters below.

Cluster Posters

Conclusions & Recommendations:

Clustering is becoming increasingly important as a tool to face the current downturn situation in which the European economy in general and the construction sector in particular are immersed. Clusters in its early stages can learn very much from others established some time ago as well as from business associations. The regional dimension of clusters is still highly important, but networking beyond the cluster boundaries is necessary for the competitiveness of the cluster as a whole and its members.
However, clustering is about trust, sharing and collaboration and we cannot allow wrong expectations to be raised and widened, as clusters are medium-long term investments, rather than a quick solution and a recipe for the problems that have strongly damaged the sector.

 

 

 

Early communication workshops in Spain

During 2008 three workshops have been organised gathering 44 people from 31 organisations. LABEIN Tecnalia and ACCIONA Infraestructuras have been actively involved in this process supported by OPE Consultores. The first workshop was oriented to agreeing on the vision, mission and main strategic areas of the forum, while the second one was expected to reach consensus about the strategic plan to deploy the vision and mission. Finally, a management model was suggested during the third workshop. This collaborative work, which follows since 2007 is laying the grounds for the creation of the Construction Cluster that could operate as the other clusters in the region do. The first workshop took place on the 5-6th of February 2008, the second one month after (5-6 March 2008), while the third one was held on the 27th of May 2008. A collaborative working methodology followed in the first two workshops, that is why it was organised in two half day sessions, each of them was attended by different organisations. The third one was a joined session. All of them took place in Euskalduna Conference Centre and Concert Hall. 


The attendees of the workshops agreed on four topics or areas that the Innovation Forum should address: industrialization, observatory of the construction sector, meeting point for companies, R&D&I in the sector. The discussion about the meaning and contents of these groups lead to the reformulation of these topics, and the overall agreement about their closeness to the industrialization, which was agreed to be the main strategic axis for the future construction cluster. This strategic axis was divided into “R&D&I”, “Industrial Processes” and “Surveillance of the Sector” (observatory) as main strategic areas. The “Association” model, the one followed by the other clusters in the regions, seems to be the most appropriate one also in this case. As other clusters do, the possibility of having different types of members and combining membership fees with public funds will be considered.


With the industrialization as the main activity axis, the mission of the “Innovation Forum, for the industrialization of the construction sector in the Basque Country region” is to become an adequate tool to create participative contexts for all the Construction Sector agents, in which innovative initiatives aimed at improving the competitiveness of the sector are generated, developed and assumed by the companies and organisations that contribute to the value creation in that sector. The strategic surveillance of the sector is the activity area on which all the efforts will be concentrated at the beginning.


Strong communication efforts, involvement of new organisations and external connections are actions of high importance for the near future. Besides, in order to ensure that the leadership is effectively transferred and actually taken by the agents themselves, a transition phase might be required, where the Basque Government could select and rely on a core group of the working group member to push and lead this change and engage the others to do it so (allies). The activities planned by REGCON are in line with and support the next steps planned by the regional cluster initiative.

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“Clustering Development in the Construction Sector in the region of Crete”

The main aim of the Greek workshop organised in Lato Boutique Hotel in Heraklion on 28th of November was to make the local market (research institutions, local authorities and enterprises) familiar with the project and its tasks. The workshop’s objectives were the following: promotion of the R&D based clustering idea in the construction sector in Greece; establishment of continuous cooperation between the research centres and the industry.
The main topics being discussed in the workshop were the following:

In response to the lack of innovative products, two new products were presented in the workshop: Building of Prototypes / 3D printing and the Applied Thermography in building management. Last but not least, a prosperous employment data base drew the attention of the audience as it gives the opportunity to engineers, administrative executives, technicians, craftsmen and students to get informed about the job opportunities in the construction sector, through the site http://jobboard.building-21.net. The service will be launched in 2009.

The next steps that are going to be made by the Greek RegCon partners is the development of the action plan for the REG CON.gr cluster. Also, the promotion of the clustering concept and the gradual launch of all products and dissemination activities, as publicised at the local www.building-21.net

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“Central Poland Construction Cluster – an opportunity for region development”

The Polish workshop was organised by ARREKS with the support of Technical University of Lodz and ASM at the Technical University of Lodz on 12th December 2008. Main objectives of the workshop were: presentation and discussion on R&D based Central Poland Construction Cluster concept; presentation of already existing clusters with focus on advantages of being a cluster member; establishment of cooperation group of research institutes, entrepreneurs and local authorities working together on cluster initiative; signature of intent letters expressing the support for cluster initiative and willingness of participation in its establishment process.

At the workshop it turned out that most of entrepreneurs operating in the central Poland and being a potential cluster members do not know much about cluster initiative. That is why the greater part of the meeting was about explaining what cluster is and what are its advantages and disadvantages. The main topics being discussed at the workshop were the following:

The workshops showed the great potential of the region and high interest of stakeholders to create the construction cluster. Detailed presentation of cluster initiative allowed to better understand the concept and encouraged participants to join the initiative. As a result of the workshop 14 letters of intent (supporting the initiative) were signed.

For the next steps that are going to be taken we plan to develop the process of construction cluster creation and in the final stage development of the action plan for the Polish construction cluster. To achieve these goals following actions are planned:

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©2009 REG CON