Thursday, February 11, 2010

Gabi Helfert

They need to open up more to international concepts, people, ideas. A lot of knowledge-intensive/ innovation work is still very much focused on Dutch collaborations, organizations and the like. The country in itself is too small to play a major role without international collaboration. I can't understand e.g. why a lot of conferences, events etc. ... See Morein the area of innovation are still predominantly held in Dutch - which excludes the majority of other Europeans or players beyond. Even regional networks should be more open to international players, since e.g. the big players in Rotterdam, the harbor etc. are international companies who employ a lot of brilliant international people - who just don't happen to be fluent in Dutch. Just a few examples: Idealize, SenterNovem, openinnovatie.nl, Innovatief Nederland,
Zorg Innovatie Forum, Centrum voor Innovatie Management (CIM) - all exclusively Dutch clubs, with Dutch websites, newsletters, meetings etc. Not very inviting for a large part of the 50% of people with non-Dutch roots living in the area...
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3 comments:

  1. UnknownFebruary 19, 2010

    As a Brit who is desperate to explore what is going on in the Netherlands in terms of entrepreneurial activity and social enterperpise, I have to agree. We, as a family, have strong links with Holland (and a house), and I would love to move our young family out there - however networking is proving very difficult. I think that Social Enterprise, as the rest of the world see it (beyond the Farmers Credit Union's that tend to come under this category in Holland), has alot to offer the world in these turbulant economic times. The lessons that we all learn are being exchanged, but I rarely hear of a Dutch presense - why is this?

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  2. Mission Top 5February 27, 2010

    @Sammy, what exactly do you experience difficult when trying to network here in NL? Could you specify a bit more? Thanks!

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  3. Mission Top 5February 27, 2010

    And @Gabi, thanks for this great idea, should be not so difficult to implement, I think. Just do it, I would say!

    On the other hand, I can imagine quite some Dutch prefer to conversate in their own language...Any opinions?

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