The conference gathered approximately 35 participants – cluster managers, BSH project partners and other stakeholders - from 16 countries. The Black Sea Region has been represented by Armenia, Georgia, Russia, Turkey, Moldova, and Ukraine. Representatives from the European Union came from Croatia, France, Greece, Hungary, Poland, Portugal,  Spain   and Serbia (as EU candidate country), while participants from Romania and Bulgaria – being EU member states and also Black Sea countries – represented both regions.

The travel and accommodation costs of invited cluster managers have been covered from the Black Sea Horizon project’s budget.

The invited cluster managers represented the two main thematic field ICT and energy (energy efficiency, renewable energies).

The welcome speech was provided by Dr. Béla Kardon, Chief Scientific Officer Regional Centre for Information and Scientific Development. A keynote presentation on cluster–to –cluster collaboration was delivered by Marc Pattinson, coordinator of the European Cluster Collaboration Platform and inno TSD Managing Director.

In the next session seven invited cluster managers presented their organizations and best practice experiences.

The presentations are available also on RISD’s website here.

In the afternoon session a plenary discussion took place on international cluster cooperation, as well as a parallel discussion in world café format on participation in international projects (H2020 and other funding sources).

At the end of the event the participants visited the EIT.  They received a short introduction about the activities of the European Institute of Innovation & Technology, followed by the presentation of two Knowledge and Innovation Communities (KIC):  EIT Digital and EIT InnoEnergy. A short Q&A session provided opportunity for the audience to address some questions to EIT representatives.