Our proposal is to create a collaborative environment that allows specific viable projects to evolve. These projects will evolve using the opportunities offered by ICT in the local environment (Business, social and economic). Their evolution will be supported in four main pillars that we consider will start providing new answers in this new world we are facing:

- Funding mechanisms, old and new (Crowd sourcing, Business Angels, etc.)
- Business models (Monetisation)
- Communication 2.0 (Social Media)
- Creativity (Invisible learning processes)

Each of these areas will be supported by experts, who will help us drill down into projects needs. This way we aim to provide answers that will catalyse these projects.

Also, users, entrepreneurs, and businessmen who are already creating wealth and employment, will help us to come up with an answer to what are the new opportunities and challenges arising from the use of ICT and social networks in rural and urban environments. They will help us find out if these opportunities involve the acceleration of wealth generation which will be key in the evolution of towns and their future.

The main objective of this space is to break down barriers so that initiatives can be turned into economically sustainable projects.

This space helps visualize the actions that are being carried out in the territory and brings out the differences born out from the initiative´s birth place.

The main analysis areas the experts will be supporting will be the following:

• Creativity: Resources will be provided in order to re-focus our point of view. This re-focusing exercise will be particularly useful when resolving problems, analyzing new situations, adding value, shaking ideas and re-vitalising ideas.

• Communication and Marketing: Experts will also provide tools and skills to position our messages, achieve alliances, improve the project ability to seduce, manage brands, expand and spread ideas.

• Funding: We will also find sources of information and resources (public, private, alternative, traditional) on how to fund our project including grants, European funds, regional funds, and new funding models among others.

• Technology: To find and share applications, platforms, tools and anything else technology may offer to enhance our projects in any of their phases.

After the Project has gone through this process, it is expected that the Project leader will take advantage of the experts´ feedback. Also, each project leader will be exposed to the experts’ feedback to other projects around the table which may also be useful. With this round table format we are achieving the following objectives:
• To accelerate the development of creative ideas adding value in the process. In this process synergies with other entities may be created and good practices shared.
• To become a meeting point where European people can exchange innovative ideas.

• To attract and promote talent and excellence, both among people who wish to develop projects and agents who want to collaborate with existing initiatives.

• To build an ideas and projects lab, where information and knowledge flow freely so that ideas and people can connect spreading the reach of this initiative beyond the initial group of people involved.

• To promote an inter-discipline forum able to lead change and provide solutions to future challenges taking advantage of technology.

In order to achieve the best results, we also propose that prior to the actual market place session, Project leaders and experts involved are able to connect via an online collaborative platform. This European online space will allow European people to share resources, their vision, their experiences and their ideas in the four main acceleration areas mentioned before: Creativity, Funding, Communication and Technology.

This network will:
• Allow the creation of a repository of both successful and failed ideas.

• Promote the ability to share skills and tools in the main acceleration areas to achieve a quick take off, development and deployment of projects.

• Help exploring new points of view to find new solutions to old problems.

• Allow to connect to other people and agents creating alliances, ideas, new working models which will help the projects.

This platform will show that technology can help accelerate the execution process of projects via the creation of links between experts and Project leaders involved in the Market Place.

SPOCS partners invite you to a “Consultation meeting on SPOCS final results” on June 20 2012 (Permanent Representation of Austria, Avenue de Cortenbergh 30, Brussels). Within the context of starting a business and providing services on a temporary basis in another European country, SPOCS has led the work needed to realise true cross- border interoperability. This includes the realisation of technical solutions to support this but also helping identify equivalent documents in participating countries. We are now looking for broader commitment to help take this forward.

Start-up Mecca is slightly moving from the Valley to the Alley http://mashable.com/2012/01/12/silicon-valley-alley-compariso/

It is widely known that the Valley grew from Stanford, but in fact was a determined proffesor, Frederick Terman http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_Terman who encouraged his students to form their own companies (heard about Hewlett and Packard?).

I commented on several posts in this group explaining that cultural differences are the biggest obstacle in becoming an innovation leader. Now let me make some constructive suggestions.

1) Reward investors who bring a company from zero to a global leadership position i.e. with tax free capital gains. And punish those if their investment looses independence or is not going to make it at all - entry in a public black book of non successful investments.