10-13 May 2009, Sofia, Bulgaria. BASSCOM is pleased to announce a Study Tour and Workshop on the topic “The role of professional branch associations in fostering the competitiveness of SMEs in the IT sector – creating a common SEE IT brand”, organized with the support of the Central European Initiative (CEI)., which will take place on 10-13 May 2009 in Sofia, Bulgaria.
The purpose of this workshop is to provide information and exchange of experiences on the significant role of the modern Branch Associations in the public live and for promotion of contemporary IT products and services to other industries.
The program will be structured in parallel and networking sessions and will also include study visits and discussions with the participating Branch organizations on:
• Models of organization and management, main priorities, current strategies and programs, common projects with government and other organizations, EU funded projects;
• State policy in ICT sector, Public-private partnership (PPP) initiatives and projects;
• Promotion of the competitiveness of SMEs trough education - strong communications between Branch Associations, Academia and Universities for creation a competent, skilled and aspiring generation of IT professionals
• Etc.
The workshop and the Study tour are open to policy makers, SME support organizations of the South Eastern and Central Eastern European Countries wishing to improve their knowledge in the field of management, development and positioning of the ICT Branch organizations their efforts and activities towards improvement of the business environment, increasing the competitiveness of the sector and the IT companies on the local and international market.
the target group includes the following organizations:
Albanian Information Technology Association; Albanian SMEs Agency; Croatian ICT Cluster; Croatian SME Association; Association for Information Technologies in Bosnia and Herzegovina; Macedonian Association for Information Technologies (MASIT); National Association of the Privately Owned ICT Companies in Moldova (NAPOICTC); Organization for SME Development in Moldova; Serbian Software Cluster; IT Ukraine Association. Other similar organizations and institutions are invited as well.
The Associations and organizations from the target countries have been selected because they are lacking a strategic approach and the required knowledge, methodologies and good practices for strengthening the association/organization’s capacity and to improve the efficiency of their activities. BASSCOM has proved experience, working on projects to support Macedonian, Serbian, Croatian and Moldovan IT industries under framework programs from USAID, GTZ, EBRD/BAS and World Bank. Other countries like Albania and Bosnia are just entering the free market of ICT. The Foundation ESI Center Eastern Europe, which was found by BASSCOM and ESI (European Software Institute, Bilbao, Spain) is continuously helping all companies and IT organizations in above mentioned countries with different level SPI (Software process improvement) programs.
Participants target group: three main categories of participants:
- IT Association representatives;
- Clusters of firms and entrepreneurs, interested to create and develop an Association;
- Civil servants – public administration and government representatives working in the field of ICT.
The working language of the workshop will be English.
For additional information and assistance, please, do not hesitate to contact us at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .
