On December 1, a teleconference with Antonio Novo, the president of the European Cluster Alliance, was held for the program's participants, representatives of the BO. Oleksandr Yurchak, general director of the Association of Industrial Automation Enterprises of Ukraine, helped kmbs organize this event, and he also moderated the meeting with Mr. Antonio.

The ESA President talked about how to distinguish a cluster, which methodology can be relied on, and described the fundamental principles necessary for interaction within the association. In particular, he emphasized the critical role of trust: "Everything is based on trust. The only way to collaborate through our organization is through building trust. Trust is based on clear rules and personal insights."

The European Cluster Alliance is a community, a network, and a space for collaboration. It connects clusters and with European institutions helps to solve their problems. The ECA network includes more than 800 European-level cluster organizations. These are 150,000 innovative enterprises, 11,000 universities, research centers, and state institutions.

Mr. Antonio talked about the activities of ESA and the different approaches the organization uses. "Sometimes people think: cooperation means that Everything should be open and shared. But it is not so. We use both approaches — closed and open innovation. Some organizations must protect what they do from prying eyes and involve only a few cooperation partners. One of our roles is to ensure this too," says the ESA president.

Mr. Antonio also gave examples of various initiatives implemented by the Alliance, and at the end of the meeting, he answered the participants' questions and provided many valuable recommendations. In particular, he shared his experience in financing business associations. In his opinion, the funding of BO should be attracted from various sources and not depend entirely on state funds because it is risky.

It was a rare opportunity to talk with the president of such a powerful organization, so there were a lot of questions from the participants. And now, BO representatives are waiting for the following exciting and valuable events!

This event was held within the framework of the Swiss-Ukrainian Project "Strengthening the member business associations of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises," which is implemented by the United Nations Development Program in Ukraine (UNDP) in cooperation with the Ministry of Economy of Ukraine and with the support of Switzerland.