News and Events

Lille December 2007

CanterLille an Interreg3A micro project paid for two C4B Olympic Group members and one Canterbury City Council Officer to attend Sign up to Succeed an Olympic Delivery Association event sponsored by SEEDA and CCCI Lille, held in France on the 18th December 2007.

The project is run between Canterbury City Councils Local Economy Team and CIEL (Lilles Centre for Innovation)

The main objective of the CanterLille project is to bring together representatives of business support structures from the Nord-Pas de Calais and from the Kent region, so that they can exchange information (e.g. knowledge and best practice experiences) as well as develop common strategies about how to support innovative businesses (i.e. high value added or knowledge based SMEs) in their economic development on both sides of the Channel. This kind of cooperation between the representatives of the support structures is of relevance, because it enables them to provide SMEs with information about cross-border market opportunities and scientific excellence.

Chris Inwood Senior Economic Development Officer and the Projects Lead said 'It was great to be able to use European funding to enable our local SME's to engage with the ODA and look at potential procurements routes for themselves and other C4B Associates'

Sign Up to Succeed was an excellent event, well run and most informative. The ODA laid out clearly how there is a case for many types of company to bid for Olympic contracts through the www.london2012.com/futureopportunities.

The ODA is actively encouraging French companies to apply for tenders, since the French had expected Paris to win the Olympic bid. As they are already geared up for this process French companies have turned 360 degrees and are now focussed on Stratford.

It was made clear that after the Beijing games there will be more opportunities outside Tier One Suppliers. Individual and consortiums of SME's could bid for contracts with tier one suppliers and direct as Tier two and three suppliers and so forth. Some contract values will be: below £3k, between £3k and £25K and over 25k and up to EU limits and beyond.

An interactive survey during the morning's presentations indicated that the French will be competing for Tenders from consultant's right through to national companies.

The overriding message we brought back was that there will be plenty of opportunities for SME's who approach the tendering process in the right way, think creatively, go to workshops to understand the tendering process and register with www.london2012.com.

The Event was attended by John Redfern MD of Castle Interim Management Ltd (providers of quality Interim Managers to medium and large enterprises) and Martin Jewiss, principle designer of MPJ design (Bilingual Web and Graphic Design specialists)

Contact details

John Redfern TD. Chartered MCIPD
Castle Interim Management Ltd
T: 01227 472385
M: 07989 582211
john@castleinterim.co.uk
www.castleinterim.co.uk

Martin Jewiss
Mpj design
01227 713 181
martin@mpjdesign.ltd.uk
www.mpjdesign.ltd.uk