Frist SPICE Summer Workshop / Fifth SPICE Picnic / 181st SPICE Meeting in Berlin, Germany

Berlin, Germany
10 – 11 Jul 2015

The Birth of SPICee?
In a generally cool and sometimes even windy and rainy week in July one day was warm and mostly sunny: the day for the 5th SPICE Picnic. This was the day to enjoy the second day of the SPICE Summer Workshop “Entrepreneurship Ecosystems”. 11 participants (Larisa Brovarska, Heinz Fiedler, Thomas Fiedler, Janis Stabulnieks, Maciej Nowak, Ralph Laganke, Rolf Friedrichsdorf, Marzena Mażewska, Peter Nagy, Uwe Seidel, and Anna Torz) from four countries (Germany, Hungary, Latvia, and Poland) could enjoy a splendid day in places around Berlin not even all “Berliners” had visited before. The schedule of the picnic day allowed – be-sides enjoying beautifully places, learning about a Nobel Prize winning scientist, relaxing boat trips, as well as food & music from several countries – continuing talks and discussions about the topics of the workshop that was hosted by CHIC, the Charlottenburg Innovation Center.
The workshop was based on a concept note prepared and mailed beforehand to all participants. This paper “Entrepreneurship Ecosystems - Easy Access for Entrepreneurs” summarized basic considerations for developing a new tool providing information to would-be entrepreneurs and startups. Additionally a web link was made available for personal testing use that allowed participants to try the new and not yet publicly available “Entrepreneurship Ecosystem” pages and tools of SPICA Directory.
The workshop began with a presentation of the concept of the Entrepreneurship Ecosystem project, the devel-opment status of the website tools including the new SPICA templates / profiles for business incubation organi-zations (“Time Line” version”), and the introduction of “SPICA Curators” concept. A lively discussion of com-ponents making Entrepreneurship Ecosystems successful and factors supporting or hindering their development led to the expected benefits and main concerns regarding the project “Entrepreneurship Ecosystems”.
Existing certification / evaluation systems for business incubation / entrepreneurship support organizations were presented as important background and basis for further work: the incubator quality labels issued by PBICA, Polish Business and Innovation Center Association; ADT, German Federal Association of Innovation, Technol-ogy and Business Incubation Centers; and ESCA, European Secretariat for Cluster Analysis.
Discussion of components of the EE project resulted in a generally positive evaluation of the concept which is characterized by a holistic approach and a strong customer orientation. The workshop developed a better under-standing of the potential user groups, and led to a number of agreements and tasks to further develop the pro-ject with the working title “SPICee, SPICE Entrepreneurship Ecosystems”.
Was this the birth of SPICee? Well, not yet. But a concrete step forward ad with the tasks defined, the commit-ments made, and the next workshop end of August / beginning September we will come closer to giving life to the new tool. This activity is open for other members of the SPICE Group network to join.

The social and cultural program of the event offered music and food at the open air “Duckstein Festival” in front of Charlottenburg Caste” with live blues, soul & rock music, artists & acrobats on stage, and food from various countries. At great start for the workshop next day.
Following the hard workshop day, at the SPICE Picnic in Petzow participants enjoyed not only several short boat rides on the lakes near Berlin, but also the delicacies brought from the home countries of attendees. The “Picnic Quiz” required an active “treasure hunt” in small teams to identify historical buildings and sites around the picnic lake. The “SPICE Memory Game” helped remembering earlier SPICE Meetings, and the guitar troubadours Rolf and Janis helped the group singing with great enthusiasm. At the end of the tour in the historical town Werder, Dany and Samy Nagy won the “Most Attentive Picnicker Award” - and the special prize for the youngest team.
For more information contact SPICE Group, Heinz Fiedler, email heinz@spice-group.de

Host: CHIC, Charlottenburg Innovation Centre
Contact: Roland Sillmann send mail