http://www.brainportavenue.nl/blog/ Blog van Brainport Avenue Zo, 20 Mei 2012 00:00:00 +0100 nl hourly 1 http://www.symphony-cms.com http://www.brainportavenue.nl/blog/bericht/my-to-do-list/ Wo, 16 Mei 2012 14:49:00 +0100 http://www.brainportavenue.nl/blog/bericht/my-to-do-list/ After a few months with a lot of meetings, both regional and transnational, and the preparation of the progress report, this week was much more quiet. I used this week to work on a lot of things that have been on my to-do list for a long time: I made a new version of the Inventory and sent it to the C2C BIZZ partners for comments. I looked at the indicators and concrete outputs of C2C BIZZ again and sent an e-mail to the C2C BIZZ partners to start the discussion on it now, instead of waiting until the next meeting (and running out of time then). I had a look at the draft versions of the Development Framework and the Memorandum of Understanding made by The Institute and sent them my remarks, although I had some difficulties understanding the documents. I made some changes to the text of the C2C BIZZ brochure, based on the remarks of the partners and the text was send to them again. I had a meeting with Pieter Reus, to talk about his part of the “Materialentransitieprogramma” (material transition program) of the SRE. Pieter is working on optimising and innovating the collection of household waste. As always it was an interesting conversation. I tested the “C2C ambitietool” (C2C ambition tool) on the Brainport Avenue website and finally it is working well. The next step is to add business sites and clusters of companies and I made a start taking that step. Together with Anouk and Bas and Eva of C2C ExpoLAB I started preparing the workshop during the C2C training in Eindhoven on 12th and 13th June. This workshop will be on diversity and finding the best way to have brainstorms on it. Finally I did some preparations for several local meetings: a lunch session on the C2C BIZZ tools in May, an excursion to Venlo and the Floriade in June, a masterclass for the frontrunners group Brainport Sustainability & Innovation also in June, the next C2C Brainport Avenue Cafe in October and a local meeting for building parties hopefully also in October. Next week will be a busy one again, so I’m happy I was able to do so much work this week. http://www.brainportavenue.nl/blog/bericht/frst-meeting-of-brainport-sustainability-and-innovation/ Wo, 09 Mei 2012 11:16:00 +0100 http://www.brainportavenue.nl/blog/bericht/frst-meeting-of-brainport-sustainability-and-innovation/ The last day before my holiday there was the first meeting of “Brainport Sustainability & Innovation”. The idea of this meeting is to create a group of regional companies leading in sustainability, to find new knowledge and make joint plans. In the province of Limburg such a group already successfully exists. I organized the meeting of 27th April together with Van Gansewinkel and Brainport Development. And to be honest, it were their relationships with the companies that made it possible to reach the right people. Joep Brouwers, director of Brainport Development, and Jean Paul Kroese, director of SRE, opened the meeting. Then Frans Beckers, director of Van Gansewinkel, told about material scarcity and the circular economy. After a short break Ron Fennema, also director of Van Gansewinkel, explained how the group in Limburg is working and what the output has been so far. Then Sef Sweegers of Van Gansewinkel told about our ideas for “Brainport Sustainability & Innovation”. Led by Peter Cox van Brainport Development there was a discussion on this. The conclusion of the meeting is that we will start with a Masterclass on C2C/circular economy. We are going to ask which companies would like to be analysed by Van Gansewinkel, to get an idea of the chances C2C offers them. Then we are ready to organise regular meetings, about four times a year and see where they bring us. http://www.brainportavenue.nl/blog/bericht/lead-partner-seminar-in-lille/ Do, 26 Apr 2012 11:58:00 +0100 http://www.brainportavenue.nl/blog/bericht/lead-partner-seminar-in-lille/ Last week Anouk and I went to the lead partner seminar in Lille. We had to go there because Anouk was not involved in the project last year and I was on holiday. Because we were considered to be “experienced”, we were asked to do a presentation on our project management. The first day started with a short presentation of the new projects. This was interesting. There were some Dutch (even from Brabants) lead partners and the was a project called Resilient WEB, using The Natural Step and Biomimicry to make businesses more resilient. Of course we talked to them about C2C and they seemed to be interested. There was also a lot of information about finances and monitoring. I already knew most of it, but there were some things I wanted to check at home. Before we had to do our presentation, there was another presentation of an experienced lead partner. On the one hand this made me nervous, because she was a native English speaker and her presentation was really good. But on the other hand I recognised almost everything she told. Apparently things are the same for each project. In the afternoon Anouk and I did our own presentation and after some cases the first day ended. Afterwards we enjoyed a drink and a nice dinner together with the other Dutch lead partners. The second day there was more information about finances. Then I went to the part about auditing. This worries me a bit, because each project will be audited at least once. But for now I can forget about it, because we are not selected for the upcoming audit. Anouk went to the part about communication and she came back very inspired and with a lot of ideas for C2C BIZZ. So although we were the most experienced lead partner that was present, it was a fruitful seminar for us. This week I’m working on the progress report. It should be finished tomorrow. Next week I’m not at the office, so there won’t be a weblog then.