This last Summer school session closed up our annual training appointment after three intense days with a wonderful group of EU lovers. ADR Nord-Vest former Director, Raluca Ioana Cibu Buzac, lead us projected into the future with an interactive session with a bespoke design created for the association: showing, in practice, how the stakeholder dimension influences any strategic development endeavour that EURADA members initiate or implement.

Empowered people, agents for change through sustainable and innovation-driven processes enabling our products and services to be the best positioned in worldwide markets were the most outstanding elements we were driven through during the 3-day content schedule. EURADA’s Secretariat and RDAs staff members, EU development practitioners, moreover persons working on supporting innovation of companies from clusters, competence centres, industry associations, chambers of commerce, start-ups and incubators, up to 24 attendees from 13 different nationalities, made it through and beyond, with an unwavering motivation, deep insights, experience, the right amount of playfulness, and a huge amount of creativity and new thinking.

We listened to Commission officers speaking about the latest information on Regional Innovation Valleys and Partnering for Regional Innovation (PRI). Through a practical on-line session with EUIPO delegates in Spain we were updated on Intellectual Property Protection tools and opportunities. Regional Cohesion Policies, Internationalisation of Local Authorities and RDAs, and Talent Attraction were some of the key issues for discussion we were involved with. In a collaborative session led by JRC colleagues, we discovered how Strategic Foresight for regional development can be a dynamic enriching practice. The critical topic of gender equality and discrimination in entrepreneurship was introduced by Alfredo Coppola, Founder of Prospera Women, by shedding light on the challenges women face in company building and raising capital, aiming to transcend gender and race to create a human-driven change.

In short, an exciting full-immersion Summer School experience based on the comprehensive approach to organisational improvement where the right balance among processes, products and particularly people can really make a difference…

Thank you all, experts and school attendants for the great moments together in Brussels!