The Innovation Hub's CEO, Dr Neville Comins, recently attended the first board meeting for 2006 of the International Association of Science Parks (IASP) held at IASP headquarters in M'alaga, Spain. The IASP international board meetings are held twice a year and the second meeting for this year will be in Helsinki alongside the 2006 IASP World Conference.
According to Dr Comins - the only international board member from Africa - it was evident from his discussions with the other board members that science parks in most regions were seeing marked growth and increased business activity. "The fraternity is seeing a growing number of positive initiatives in both new and existing parks'" he said. Not least of these is the growing interest in science parks that is happening on the African continent.
Discussions included a new strategy for the association which should offer increased benefits to its members and will proceed to be fully developed for the Helsinki meeting. Also high on the agenda was the 2008 IASP World Conference which will be hosted by The Innovation Hub and held in Gauteng - bringing the conference to Africa for the very first time. Following extensive planning and consultation with the local stakeholders committee (LSC) for the conference, Dr Comins gave feedback to the board on the preparations to date. "The board expressed great satisfaction with the progress that we've made," he said.
At the meeting, agreements were reached on the proposed dates for the conference as well as the venue and broad programme. The board also showed support for the main theme as proposed by the LSC - a panel which includes representatives of the Department of Science and Technology and Gauteng Provincial Government. The final wording of the theme will be ratified by the 2008 International Conference Steering Committee, once it has been put in place.
The preparations for the forthcoming 2006 IASP World Conference in June, themed "Helping innovative companies to succeed and communities to prosper" are well in-hand. "Seventy-five of the 100 papers have already been accepted, and the association is expecting significant participation in this conference", he said.
Dr Comins added the trip to Spain served as a useful networking opportunity, allowing him to source information on developments in Angola and Mozambique which he says will be followed up to help create more active regional interaction. "The developing and emerging countries are a big and active group and it is important that we pool together to capitalise on all this activity," he said.
URLs
IASP www.iasp.ws/index.php?ce=
2006 IASP World Conference www.iasp.ws/agenda/conferences.php?ce=
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