Open Days 2009 Basilicata International Forum: Innovative cities for state-of-the-art enterprises: Sustainable investments in small and medium-sized cities
29 October 2009 - 31 October 2009
Italy
The Matera Forum seeks to stimulate an exchange of ideas and solutions among the public and private sectors on the theme of investments and human capital in the small and medium cities. (SMC’s = small and medium cities, SME = small and medium enterprises). Policies regarding innovation, research, education, training, environment and creative industries are important levers for growth in European regions. For small and medium cities (SMC’s), especially those peripheral to the regions that constitute Europe’s economic engines, policies in these fields represent a challenge within a challenge.
The original challenge is to train, retain and attract people and enterprises that enjoy a high level of flexibility in their location choice, and thus global mobility. To develop and attract human resources, advanced enterprises and investment, SMC’s must overcome the limits of their size, geographical position, and other factors, like transport connections, the range and quality of economic resources (public and private), and the density of human relationships.
Basilicata and Matera enjoy a unique natural and urban habitat, but the sustainability and equilibrium of these habitats also depend on the way the region and its cities manage to take advantage of opportunities offered by the knowledge economy and the current economic crisis.
The Forum will focus on investment in science based industries, knowledge based manufacturing, creative industries, green economy, and cultural tourism. And it will face a critical question for SMC’s: how to develop a local educational system capable of generating human capital, which is the true wealth of cities. The sustainability of economic and environmental investment depends on local educational system and the quality of the human capital it produces.
It will be up to the territory’s main players, such as enterprises, local governments and universities, to interpret the ideas and solutions proposed in the Forum so that they can develop regional and urban policies tailored to local SMC’s and favour the emergence of an urban region better equipped to compete on a global scale.
Within the forum, in parallel with the thematic sessions, two laboratories will be held, with a predefined activities module, and an “urban game” will be set up in order to involve Matera’s citizens.For more information, registration and logistics please visit: http://opendays.basilicatanet.it/opendays_en.htm(opens in new window);
The original challenge is to train, retain and attract people and enterprises that enjoy a high level of flexibility in their location choice, and thus global mobility. To develop and attract human resources, advanced enterprises and investment, SMC’s must overcome the limits of their size, geographical position, and other factors, like transport connections, the range and quality of economic resources (public and private), and the density of human relationships.
Basilicata and Matera enjoy a unique natural and urban habitat, but the sustainability and equilibrium of these habitats also depend on the way the region and its cities manage to take advantage of opportunities offered by the knowledge economy and the current economic crisis.
The Forum will focus on investment in science based industries, knowledge based manufacturing, creative industries, green economy, and cultural tourism. And it will face a critical question for SMC’s: how to develop a local educational system capable of generating human capital, which is the true wealth of cities. The sustainability of economic and environmental investment depends on local educational system and the quality of the human capital it produces.
It will be up to the territory’s main players, such as enterprises, local governments and universities, to interpret the ideas and solutions proposed in the Forum so that they can develop regional and urban policies tailored to local SMC’s and favour the emergence of an urban region better equipped to compete on a global scale.
Within the forum, in parallel with the thematic sessions, two laboratories will be held, with a predefined activities module, and an “urban game” will be set up in order to involve Matera’s citizens.For more information, registration and logistics please visit: http://opendays.basilicatanet.it/opendays_en.htm(opens in new window);
Keywords
knowledge economy