Mairi Henderson, Project Manager, Scottish Enterprise Regional Workshop: Castle Douglas, Dumfries & Galloway Date: Wednesday 7 th May 2014

Regional Seminar Agenda Welcome Superfast Broadband Rollout – Scottish Government Business Gateway – What we do? Introduction to CREATE – Scottish Enterprise Networking Session Meet the CREATE Advisor Mak-Lab

What is CREATE? Developing approaches to encourage the take up & optimal use of Broadband & ICT by SMEs in rural areas Working in partnership with organisations across different regions in North West Europe to share skills & ideas and to test approaches in different environments SMEs will benefit from intensive support and business advice on how to exploit ICT

The funding will provide support for SMEs to receive 1-1 advice Materials to be developed that encourage ICT & broadband take-up Help SMEs to collaborate with other small rural businesses from across North West Europe. The project is funded from the INTERREG IVB Programme which targets EU funding to encourage regional collaboration to develop new approaches to common problems €2.6m EU Funded project (€1.3m of which is ERDF)

Story so far.. September Launched project with Conference in Hereford December Appointed Leadership Panel of industry experts January Transnational Seminar in Dumfries, Scotland February Recruitment process for CREATE Advisors March / April / May 2014 – Regional Workshops being delivered across all Partner regions

Aims to overcome Structural Deficits of the Rural Economy – Isolation from markets & skills – Lack of infrastructure – Lack of scale – Poor clustering opportunities – Lack of ICT expertise – Reliance on traditional sectors

Collection exercise HSB Rollout/Demand stimulation Specific marketing campaigns attached to a rollout in an area to get uptake from businesses Bespoke seminars presenting specific advantages to the different target groups

Role of NGA Broadband Digitally Mature SMEs grow at least 2 times faster At the height of the recession digitally mature SMEs were 29% more likely to grow than those with only basic use of IT More sophisticated IT – improves labour productivity - 10% in services; 5% in manufacturing – drives 20% of all productivity growth across sectors The annual total turnover of U.K. SMEs could be boosted by £18.8bn if all of these firms sold and marketed online

Persisting Issues High awareness of speed issue Low awareness of potential Poor exploitation will continue Without action, economic effects will not be realised Latent economic potential must be unlocked

Snapshot of Pan Partner Survey

Why do this transnationally? Technical capacity & skills Gain scale Technical & economic specialisms Test approaches Demonstrate how rural SMEs can benefit from the global economy

Leadership Panel Recruit a Leadership Panel comprised of business & ICT experts from each partner region to the transfer of knowledge & skills across the partner regions

Collection exercise 1:1 CREATE Advisor support (expert advice) Business Directory Business Review, identifying Action Plan specific to your SME E-Guides – Best Practice guides Digi-Labs - access to lab which showcases new IT Technologies Clusters - Access to online knowledge platforms What will CREATE offer SMEs?

Business Review Diagnostic Develop dynamic & tailored tool for delivery to a range of SMEs with different levels of digital maturity The tool will focus on ways that new technologies can be incorporated into the business processes of rural SMEs to – encourage resilience, – increase efficiency, & – boost competitiveness. Delivered on the ground by local advisors until June 2015

Develop physical & virtual Digi-Labs as demonstrators and to facilitate transnational communication & collaboration Digi-Labs

E-GUIDES

Virtual Clusters Virtual clustering of rural SMEs across NWE To overcome barriers to market caused by remoteness & the lack of critical mass The Cloud Clusters will provide SMEs with Significant exposure to other regions and countries Opportunity to gain scale Friendly environment to foster open innovation New suppliers New partners Transfer of new processes that can cut costs & increase sales

youtube.com/user/createNWE flickr.com/photos/createNWE facebook.com/createNWE twitter.com/createNWE linkedin.com/groups/ Search LinkedIn for: CREATE – Connecting Rural Enterprise for a Transnational Economy Keeping in Touch with #createNWE

Book Time with CREATE Adviser Contact Dan Annison, Scottish Enterprise Tel: Mairi Henderson, Scottish Enterprise Tel: