INDESCAT has travelled to New York jointly with other 15 Catalan clusters with the aim of exploring alliances with this reference ecosystem. This trip is part of the VII Strategic Training Week, an initiative organized by ACCIÓ -the agency for the competitiveness of the company, depends on the Department of Enterprise and Knowledge-, through the Foreign Trade and Investment Offices in New York and Washington DC.
The Catalan clusters that have participated in this initiative are Catalan Water Partnership, Beauty Cluster, MODACC, Kid’s Cluster, Packaging Cluster, Railgrup, Indescat, CENFIM, EDUTECH, ClústerMAV, Innovi, Cluster Foodservice, Cluster Audiovisual de Cataluña, Solartys, Cluster de Salud Mental de Cataluña y FEMAC.
During the trip, the representatives of the Catalan clusters have made more than 60 individual meetings with agents of the ecosystem of New York, such as the multinational Google, the design school Parsons, a local accelerator in the field of EdTech or the Councilor for mobility of the City Council from the city. They have also participated in meetings at the headquarters of the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bankin Washington DC with those responsible for the sectoral programs of these organizations in areas such as transport, water, health, agricultural technologies, educational technologies, solar energy and housing.
In addition, participants have received specialized training in the field of strategy from the professor at Columbia University and innovation expert Rita Guther McGrath, and Cornell University professor Samuel Bacharach, an expert in organizational management; as well as in the development of the clusters, with Eric Hansen, one of the founders of TCI Network, a network specialized in supporting clusters. Likewise, the cluster managers have held networking meetings with Catalan managers working in the North American ecosystem. Also, those who have consumer products have participated in a retail tour to see first-hand the particularities of the reference points of the city as the Chelsea Market or Strand Bookstore, and consumer behavior in New York.
As regards the sports sector, INDESCAT has had the opportunity to meet representatives of the New York City Marathon, the NBA, the NYC Sports Tank, the boutique centre Barry's Bootcamp and the premium and low cost gym chains Equinox and Blink Fitness, respectively.
In previous editions, Strategic Training Week has accompanied Catalan clusters to explore alliances in countries such as Singapore, South Korea, Canada or Israel, as well as other areas of the United States such as Boston or Silicon Valley.
Catalonia has more than 25 years of experience in the development of clusters, through the Catalonia Clusters program. This initiative is promoted by the Generalitat through ACCIÓ, with the objective of promoting the grouping of companies and entities of the same sector to boost their competitiveness, share resources, generate synergies and intentionally project themselves. Currently, the 28 Catalan clusters of the program group 2,200 companies with a turnover of 74,000 million euros and more than 300,000 workers
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