Baltic Business Arena 2013, the 3rd of its kind, has once again proved itself to be a valuable platform for business dialogues and has positioned the Baltic Sea region as a place to do business. Baltic Business Arena 2013 took place during the 15th Baltic Development Forum Summit in Riga, Latvia and attracted 78 companies from 7 countries in the Baltic Sea region.
Over the course of two days, 78 SMEs from clean tech, ICT, life sciences, renewable energy and creative industry sectors conducted 350 individual business to business meetings. The BBA 2013 official evaluation report released in September revealed that 20% of the meetings resulted in fixed contracts and/or planned cooperation among companies. 75% of surveyed companies found BBA meetings relevant and useful. Access the full evaluation report here.
In addition to the individual business meetings, BBA 2013 was kicked off with a seminar ‘’How to do Business in the Baltic Sea Region: the Dos and the Don’ts’’ where experts and successful practitioners in the field shared their insights and experiences. Magnusson Law Firm, Foreign Investors’ Council in Latvia, and European Investment Bank participated in the active panel discussion.
BDF Chairman Hans Skov Christensen emphasized: “The Baltic Sea Region is performing well in Europe regarding growth and competitiveness. Our business structure is dominated by SMEs and dynamic entrepreneurs. Their engagement in establishing new contacts and business opportunities across the Baltic Sea is crucial for the further development of our region.’’
A returning BBA Participant Mikael Håkansson from European Minds: “The arrangement with matchmaking is a good symbiosis and a very professional arrangement. Thanks to the contacts we made during the matchmaking event in Copenhagen last year, we could now deepen our discussions in Riga, which resulted in two new business deals.’’ European Minds is an independent consulting firm who works to support and coach companies to take advantage of the EU membership.
BBA 2013 was organised and sponsored by the Swedish Agency of Economic and Regional Growth (Tillväxtverket) and arranged by ALMI and BDF. Co-sponsors of the initiative were Enterprise Europe Network, Swedish Institute and BDF.