28 November 2010 | 02 December 2010 | India

In India, the promotion of cluster formation and global standards of competitiveness have gained significance and momentum: India has then becomed an attractive destination for TCI Network. The 13th TCI Global Conference was hosted by several indian organizations, as CII-Confederation of Indian Industry, the MSME Ministry (for micro, small and medium enterprises), the Ministry of S&T and other research and innovation organizations.

With more than 300 delegates from all over the world, the conference was the perfect occasion to meet and share policies, development methods and practices and facilitate the exchange of innovation, learning and research, and also to forge business and academic ties for future, long-term benefits. Devoted to "Competitiveness, Innovative Clusters and Prosperity", the conference initiative was to celebrate the evolution of clusters and their impact on the economic order, based on growth and prosperity. The aim of the 2010 conference was to involve economic development officials, academics, policy makers, business people, consultants, investors, analysts, and development agencies in the Indian voyage to competitiveness.

Here some testimonials from participants:

Rauli Sorvari - Regional Council of Central Finland and TCI Director

"Delhi was an experience to remember. It gave us strong ideas to develop the concept of conference production and processing the development of learning clusters.

During the conference, I had the chance to discuss and make contacts around the development and piloting of Learning Clusters and EduCluster. The dialog with the Asian Development Bank was very interesting for a potential new project and with other partners mostly from Scandinavian and Baltic Sea countries, with whom we discussed the possibility to cooperate in cluster development with a "learning clusters" approach. Both Learning Clusters and EduCluster concepts were on the table when discussing with representatives from South America and Africa. Still, our previous goal to look for potential activities in Asia was not completed because of the lack for participants from this particular area.

Thank you all for a pleasant cooperation during and after the conference in Delhi!"

Barnabas Nawangwe - Makerere University, Uganda and TCI Director

"This was one of the most multi-cultural conferences TCI has held, with a good representation of the developing world from Africa, Asia and South America.

The programme of the conference was well structured, representing the triple helix issues.

The cluster tours were appropriate and educative, with the top executives devoting time to talk to the participants.

I had opportunities of networking with several participants working on similar programmes to the one I coordinate in Uganda. These included participants from Australia, Brazil, India and the UK. One of these is working on a book on clusters and I will contribute an article on clusters in Uganda."

Alberto Pezzi - OPI-Government of Catalonia, Spain and TCI President

"The Delhi conference was a great learning experience: we had very stimulating keynotes, we centered the debate on fundamental issues like how clusters can contribute to enhance prosperity, and we discussed extensively on the importance of human component in cluster initiatives.

We had also the opportunity to be introduced in the reality of Indian clusters with some very interesting interventions like Mukesh Gulati's. I wish we had the opportunity to learn even more!

Regarding the conference format, we confirmed the importance of interactive sessions and small group workshops. A couple of them I have seen worked very well! I also enjoyed very much the initial sessions and the "bridge" that our Finish friends (Rauli, Anna and Katja) built between the last year conference and the present one.

Lessons for the future: avoid having too many people in the same session, and focus the presentations on the mechanics of each experience, what works and what doesn't work in each case/region.

Thanks once more to Amit, his family and his team for the huge efforts they have done and the human and material resources dedicated to this conference."