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SME Assembly 2016 is just around the corner!
Welcome to the November edition of the SME Week newsletter!
The month of the SME Assembly 2016 is finally upon us – it is set to take place in Bratislava on 23-25 November, 2016. It will gather experts and entrepreneurs from across Europe with a common goal to collaborate on helping European enterprises strive and scale up in Europe and beyond.
The event will kick off with the Business Tours and the European SME Week Reception, both hosted by the Slovak Presidency.
The second day of the Assembly will include keynote addresses by EU SME Envoys and European Commissioner for the Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs Elżbieta Bieńkowska, and Slovakian Minister of the Economy Peter Žiga.
After that - Get in the Ring! As part of the Global Start up competition we will challenge entrepreneurs to a pitching competition like no other seen before. The day will culminate in the presentation of the nominees and announcement of the winners in the EEPA Awards, followed by a gala dinner.
Friday will begin by celebrating the EEPA's tenth birthday. The session Ten Years On will be dedicated to predictions on how the world of SMEs, start-and scale-ups will look like in 2026. The winner of the Youth Essay Competition 'What can the EU do to encourage more young people to become entrepreneurs’ will present their prize-winning entry before an audience of delegates from around the world.
The rest of the day, participants will have the opportunity to participate and collaborate during the many policy sessions, workshops and master classes.
With seminars, pitch battles, an exhibition and so much more, this event is one to look forward to!
 Online SME Assembly LinkedIn group
The discussion has already started in the Online SME Assembly LinkedIn group. Join us there to meet and work together with other participants on making Europe a place where SMEs can reach new heights.
 EEPA News
Countdown to EEPA Awards Ceremony has begun
The countdown to the 10th annual European Enterprise Promotion Awards has begun and by the end of this month we will know who the winners are in each of the EEPA project categories, in addition to the Grand Jury prize winner.
The winners will be announced on the evening of the second day of the SME Assembly on 24 November. Throughout October we have been showcasing the shortlisted projects in each category, and will continue to present the remaining categories in the run-up to the Assembly:
To keep up with all the news ahead of the 10th annual European Enterprise Promotion Awards this month, read more details on the EEPA 2016 project shortlist and follow our blog.
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Karen Boers stays on as Entrepreneur in Residence
 Karen Boers, who introduced herself as our Entrepreneur in Residence last month will continue in this position with a series of blog posts in November. Karen is co-founder and CEO of both the Belgian startup network Startups.be and the European Startup Network.
Her career has been driven by her passion for creating opportunities for people interested in starting a business and facilitating the development of an entrepreneurial ecosystem in Europe. Karen already started sharing her experience with us on the Promoting Enterprise blog in October, and will continue to talk about her motivation and plans for the future in November.
You can read Karen’s October blog posts here:
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Youth Essay Competition - Final results
The results of the European SME Week Youth Essay Competition are in! After careful deliberation by the judges, lengthy discussions have been had and the decision has been made. It is now time for us to reveal the winner:
Congratulations to Andri Pandoura!
Andri is a member of the Cyprus Children’s Parliament and has already developed an interest in human rights and advocating, which she plans to pursue in future by studying law and embarking on a career in human rights law.
The very close runners up are:
Katie Williams, a multilingual young worker from the UK currently working in the field of International Trade.
Francesco Foglia, an Italian journalist in European Affairs currently studying a Masters in Business Administration.
Frici Barabas, a Romanian entrepreneur with an online business who also teaches others how to succeed in the professional online world.
Congratulations to all our finalists and be sure to stay tuned to find out more about them in forthcoming posts! We would also like to congratulate all those who submitted an essay as the standard was very high and the final results very close.
Read more about European SME Week Youth Essay Competition 2016.
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On the blog…
Throughout October we have been showcasing the projects shortlisted for an EEPA Award, and will continue this presentation ahead of the SME Assembly in November. Other highlights in October include blog posts by entrepreneurs Petar Isirov and Daan De Wever.
Check out their blog posts below:
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Is your SME Week event already in the EC calendar?
Don’t forget that, as an SME Week coordinator, you can publicise all your events by uploading details to this portal.
Eligible events include conferences, competitions, exhibitions, company open days, or any other means of attracting an audience interested in micro, small and medium-sized firms. The subjects can include anything essential to running small/medium businesses: start-ups, corporate social responsibility, tax and legal issues, female entrepreneurship, social economy, etc.
Your regional and national events qualify for inclusion in addition to cross-border, European and international events. So don’t delay. Get posting!
If you need some more guidance, click here for a helpful FAQ.
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 Event calendar
November
● 8 - 10 November: Global Changes, Challenges for Innovation Clusters, Eindhoven, the Netherlands
● 23 - 25 November: SME Assembly 2016, Bratislava, Slovakia
● 24 November: CORNET and IraSME Partnering Event, Prague, Czech Republic
● 30 November - 1 December: SLUSH, Helsinki, Finland
December
● 1 - 2 December: The European Cluster Conference 2016, Brussels, Belgium
2017
● 3 - 4 January 2017: EU-US B2B opportunity, Las Vegas, USA
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Literary inspiration from the world’s leading thinkers
 The E Factor by David A. Gibson
This book was written to help people understand and develop the entrepreneurial skills needed to achieve career success or start up a new business.
The book is based on 10 years full-time work with entrepreneurs and 10 years of research that proves that the acquisition of these skills will enable anyone to achieve their goals. The book is written in an engaging style with lots of exercises, making it an enjoyable and informative read.
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 Fast fact
SMEs account for
66.8 %
of the EU’s non-financial business economy workforce, according to information from Eurostat.
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 Inspire and be inspired! Send us a photo of you and your team @ Work
  
Are you the star of your own enterprise and love what you do?
Do you work by yourself, or employ others and work in a team?
Want to inspire others and share your entrepreneurial experiences?
Then we’d love to see you at work! Tweet us an image and caption at @EEPA_EU or submit through our Instagram account @promotingenterprise using the hashtag #SMEweekWork.
Whether you run your business from an office, a shop, or any other location, submit your photos with a short paragraph about who you are and what you do for our feature, “Enterprise @ Work”. You can also email promotingenterprise@gopacom.eu with the subject line “Enterprise @ Work” and send your image as an attachment.
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 Tell us your stories
We’d love to hear from you! Let us know what you’re doing in your business. Submit an article on a topic that you think would be of interest to the European enterprise community. Tell us who or what you’d like to see featured. Submit a business book or podcast review. Send us a photo of you and/or your team at work for our new “Enterprise@Work” feature, where we highlight entrepreneurs in their own domains.
Email us at promotingenterprise@gopacom.eu.
If you wish to receive the newsletter, please subscribe here or:
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