Promoting Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Latin America and the Caribbean: Strategies and Partnerships

Promoting Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Latin America and the Carribean: Strategies and Partnerships

May 15 - 18, 2006 | Montevideo, Uruguay

Mapa de América que tiene indicados aquellos países que tienen programas de Infodev

May 15, 2006

	Arrival of participants Pre-registration of foreign delegates and participants
	2100	Welcoming dinner - Radisson Montevideo Victoria Plaza Hotel Conference Room 4th. floor

May 16, 2006 (Day 1) – By Invitation Only

0800		Registration

0900		Opening Welcome Remarks Introductory Remarks: Business Incubator Initiative, infoDev Program

1015		Coffee/Tea

TRACK 1: CHALLENGES AND STRATEGIES
This track provides lessons learned from the private sector, industry players and organizations providing incubation, innovation and entrepreneurship services in designing and implementing strategies to overcome the challenges facing the growth of ICT and ICT-enabled small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and as drivers for new economic opportunities.

1045		Session 1: Regional Perspective of the Challenges and Strategies: Facilitating an Entrepreneurial Environment Discussion of the fundamental impediments to greater innovation and entrepreneurship in the region. What are some of the programs that donor agencies are supporting? What sort of environment stimulates entrepreneurship and how can it be created?

1200		Building the LAC Regional Network Brief introduction and objectives

1230		Lunch (Club de los Industriales)

1400		Session 2: Financing Challenges for ICT and ICT-Enabled SMEs What finance gaps exist? What financial mechanisms are used to foster growth of SMEs? Can good practices and lessons be drawn from experience? How can incubators help identify and leverage financial resources for their clients? How can networks be established?

1530		Coffee/Tea

1600		Session 3: Development of Innovation and Entrepreneurial Support in Latin America and the Caribbean infoDev grantees and other participants present the status of their project development aimed at sharing experience and lessons learnt. The presentations will follow a structured approach: What are the goals of the incubator/Science Park and its achievements? How are the policy and financial challenges addressed? Who are the partners of the incubator and how is cooperation organized? How does the organization support innovation? What is the role of ICT in achieving the goals and delivering services for clients? What are the incubator’s business model and sources of revenue for long term sustainability? What lessons have been learnt?

1830		Transfer to Hotel

2030		Transfer Hotel-Dinner

2100		Dinner (La Redención)

May 17, 2006 (Day 2) – By Invitation Only

TRACK 2: THE ROLE OF THE PUBLIC SECTOR
Innovation, entrepreneurship and incubation policy regional overview: What is happening; Are any trends evident; What is the Latin America and the Caribbean regional perspective?

0900		Session 4: Regional Perspective of How the Public Sector Can Foster Innovation & Entrepreneurship What are governments doing to foster innovation, incubation and entrepreneurship and why? Discussion of the impact and lessons learned from government efforts to support innovation, incubation and entrepreneurship. What policies have been most effective? What lessons have been learned from a policy perspective; Are there any common road maps applicable across the region or adaptable from one country to another?

1015		Coffee/Tea

1045		Session 5: Public-Private-Partnerships: How Can the Public and Private Sector Collectively Support Innovation and Entrepreneurship Discussion of the impact and lessons learned from public-private-partnerships (PPPs) to support innovation, incubation and entrepreneurship. What are the lessons learned from Science and Technology Parks?

1230		Lunch (Club de los Industriales)

TRACK 3: INNOVATION AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP IN LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN: STRATEGIES AND PARTNERSHIPS
This track will combine the discussions from track one and two and propose actions that the private sector and public sector including donors can take to address the constraints to innovation and entrepreneurship in Latin America and the Caribbean.

1400		Session 6: Working Models on ICT, Innovation, Enterprise and Network Development How can ICT help service clients and scale up business development services? What models are effective, how and why? How can ICT facilitate networks among innovators including Diaspora? How can SMEs leverage ICT for increasing their competitiveness?

1515		Coffee/Tea

1545		Session 7: Perspectives from the entrepreneurs and SMEs: Challenges and Strategies. What are the main obstacles faced by entrepreneurs to set up new technology companies in developing regions? What lessons can be shared with other entrepreneurs and SMEs in the region. How have they used ICT to become more competitive? How have incubators and other organizations helped?

1700		Moderated Session Summary of key priorities and challenges discussed during the Workshop Discussion of concrete ways that policy makers, donors and the private sector could address the impediments to greater innovation and entrepreneurship in the region, particularly for ICT-enabled SMEs. Discussion of concrete ways that policy makers, donors and the private sector could help successful entrepreneurs to grow their businesses by improving their access to financial resources. Key emerging issues Opportunities for collective action and particular actions for the Latin America and the Caribbean regional network

1830		Transfer to Hotel

2030		Transfer Hotel - Dinner

2100		Dinner

May 18, 2006 (Day 3) – By Invitation Only

TRACK 4: PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT FOR BUSINESS INCUBATORS AND SMEs
This is a professional development track for organizations involved in business incubation, innovation and entrepreneurship development, and ICT-enabled entrepreneurs. It addresses skills, tools and approaches used, to help managers and staff to improve their capacity to respond to internal issues, external challenges and the needs of their clients, and to help entrepreneurs to implement sustainable business models and more effectively market their product and services.

0900		Designing Sustainable Business Models; Managing Business Incubators and Science Parks

1000		Monitoring Evaluation and Impact Assessment

1045		Coffee/Tea

1100		Latin America and the Caribbean Regional Network: Next Steps & Action Plan

1230		Closing remarks

1300		Lunch (Club de los Industriales)


1430		Afternoon Site Visits ZONAMERICA Business and Technology Park Polo Tecnológico de Pando (PTP) INGENIO Business Incubator

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