28.09.2022.

Supercluster Creative Tech Serbia and the SGA at the European Cluster Conference

This event is following the cycle of European Cluster Conferences that have taken place every two years since 2008, every time with a different theme enabling participants to focus on different priorities. More than 600 delegates from 200 clusters took part in the latest edition, including several representatives from Serbian clusters, including the SGA and Creative Tech Serbia.

The Czech Ministry for Industry and Trade (under the Czech Presidency of the Council of the EU) and the European Commission organized the 8th edition of the European Cluster Conference on 26 and 27 September 2022 in Prague. Organized with the support of the European Cluster Collaboration Platform (ECCP), this event was a unique opportunity as it brought together cluster policy makers, cluster managers, practitioners and other stakeholders.

The SGA has been registered on the ECCP platform since 2020, and validated as the representative cluster of the Serbian game development industry based on the “triple helix” model. Moreover, since the summer of 2022, the SGA is also leading the consortium of the supercluster Creative Tech Serbia, which aims to foster cross-industry collaboration within the Serbian creative-tech sector, and support its internationalization. Having all this in mind, our visit to Prague was a chance to network and exchange experience with cluster managers from across Europe and, more importantly, from across the diverse industries. 

The event was centered on cluster policies and initiatives allowing for the concrete implementation of the green and digital transitions in Europe’s value chains as well as strengthening their resilience, hence making clusters the core actors of change, in line with the updated EU Industrial Strategy. 

The main goals of the event were to discuss the latest trends in cluster policies and stimulate a high-level policy discussion on challenges and needs in a post-pandemic context, making a better use of clusters and to showcase the results of EU cluster initiatives and actions such as Euroclusters, Cluster Excellence, Internationalisation, Supporting SME Innovation, Industrial Modernisation and Smart Specialisation. Ultimately, the goal was to encourage synergies, exchange and interaction between policy-makers, practitioners and experts at European level, and finally to elect the European Cluster Manager of the Year and award the prize for European Cluster Partnership of the Year.

Creative Tech Serbia and the SGA were represented at the conference by Relja Bobić, Supercluster Co-Chair and SGA’s Program Director, as well as Lazar Lekić and Igor Graić, who are part of the Serbia Innovates project team. Furthermore, Anđela Ivković was representing the agro-tech supercluster, working under the auspices of Serbia Innovates. 

The delegation to the conference was facilitated by the Creative Tech Serbia supercluster, with the support of USAID Serbia and ICT Hub Belgrade (through the Serbia Innovates project). You can read more about the Creative Tech Serbia supercluster here.