The 2019 edition of TCI, the world’s biggest cluster conference, is a wrap.  This year, Antwerp (Flanders) provided the ideal background for tons of inspiration,  new ideas and best practices. To highlight the most important learnings, we turned  to Marc Van Gastel (head of Invest at Flanders Investment & Trade), Annie  Renders (head of Unit Cluster Policy at Flanders Innovation and  Entrepreneurship), Merete Daniel Nielsen (president of TCI Network) and Patricia  Valdenebro (CEO of TCI Network).

• Clusters are a great tool to improve our societies.

Merete Daniel Nielsen: “The key is to uncover in what areas we need improvements. It might be on skills development, talent attraction, stimulating innovation or tackling other areas of competitiveness. During the conference, making the transition to a greener and more sustainable model seemed to be an area that many in the TCI community are focusing their cluster efforts on.”

                                “The global cluster community is focusing on the transition to a greener  and more sustainable model.”

• Governments have a major role to play in building cluster-friendly ecosystems

Annie Renders: “When it comes to clusters, government organizations shouldn’t be too involved in setting them up. The government’s task is not to create clusters, but to foster an ecosystem that allows clusters to grow and thrive. Additionally, we need to start leveraging our existing clusters more in our public agenda. The research and breakthroughs of our spearhead clusters and innovative business networks (IBNs) can have a major impact on industrial competitiveness as well as on societal challenges.”

                                                “Clusters can  and should be leveraged more when shaping the public agenda.”

• Internationalization is a key focus in the development of a cluster

Annie Renders: “If TCI 2019 taught us one thing, it’s that there’s always room for improvement. What inspired me most at the conference were the stories of how clusters in other regions tackle export activities, attract investments and set up international projects together. There’s a lot of unrealized potential there.”

Marc Van Gastel: “Even more, it’s important to not just zoom in on how clusters themselves work, but to also look at how they function within the larger international ecosystem of companies, knowledge institutions and intermediary organizations as well as stimulate collaboration across borders and cultures.”

                                                  “There’s a lot  of unrealized potential for clusters as internationalization tools.”

• Achieving results is more important than perfectly fitting the definition of a cluster

Patricia Valdenebro: “When facing innovation, you can’t get bogged down by the details. Focus on what matters: action and results. Gather a group of like-minded partners – companies, government organizations, knowledge institutions – and start working towards a common goal. Don’t worry too much about ticking every box needed to be the perfect example of a cluster: through collaboration with other organizations, you automatically end up in the realm of clusters.”

                                                   “Focus on achieving results instead of trying to tick every box of the  perfect cluster”

The  power of collaboration

TCI 2019 also illustrated a core value: the power of collaboration – as was promised by the “Yes,  together we can” campaign.

Marc Van Gastel: “This conference was the perfect breeding ground for several fruitful long-term connections between clusters, particularly in the tech industry. I certainly hope the international human connections made in Antwerp will be catalysts for many technological innovations to come.”