The best ideas are the simplest. The problems of start-ups in establishing networks of potential clients or investors are well known – and even greater away from home. So the provision of office space and services in a high-tech environment, plus guidance on finding the right contacts, is very welcome.

The European Commission supports the PAXIS initiative to promote the setting up and development of innovative companies across Europe. Within it, the Euro Office initiative(1) has member organisations in eight of the PAXIS regions of excellence which have made an outstanding contribution to supporting young innovative start-ups. The latest, SwissParks.ch, joined in June 2004. And within each region of excellence, many science parks and business innovation centres and incubators are involved.

The inspired idea was to encourage these innovation-friendly centres to offer physical office space and support services to start-up companies from other Member States, to give them a base from which they could build contacts in a new country. Instantly, they could begin to explore the new potential market, with the benefit of local knowledge and advice.

Landing place
Alain André of the Cicom organisation, which administers the Alpes Maritimes region of excellence, explains: “The idea came from Gérard Bonnes and Pertti Vuorela from the Helsinki region who wanted to help start-ups to market themselves and their products throughout Europe. It is not easy to find the right contacts, and they proposed that any science park member of the Euro Office network could offer a small office.” Gérard Bonnes continues: “We find them an office, which is a landing place for local services. The host organisation provides a telephone, internet, photocopying and translation. But this is really only the tip of the iceberg – the real service is the networking and access to the right people in the right companies. Without advice from someone local who knows how these companies are organised, and who can help them get the right appointment, they will never succeed. Start-up companies need help, and they need it free.” The cost of providing these networking services is borne by the host organisations, on a reciprocal basis.

Home from home
The basic offer is a furnished office and a meeting room for six people with screen and video projection equipment, but no computers. Visiting companies have access to guidance about the location, and they can also plug into a local area database of contacts and ask for meetings to be organised for them with potential customers, research partners or sources of finance. Secretarial services and language support are also available. Alain André says that at present there is no time limit for visiting companies to occupy these facilities, and in the early stages they are free of charge. “Once they are able to decide if they have a real market in that country, they become normal paying tenants.”

“For an emerging company like Apliway(2), deploying its sales network all over Europe, the Euro Office is the perfect initiative to get started,” says Apliway’s Marielle Bader. “We would like to see the network extended to the UK, particularly London,” she adds.

André hopes that eventually all 22 PAXIS regions of excellence will participate in the Euro Office scheme. “We will listen to requests from start-ups, and if there is a call for a landing place in Dublin, or London, or anywhere else we will try to meet the need. But we do have to make sure that the organisations will maintain the high standards needed to provide the best services to clients.”

Benefits all round
In parallel with the Euro Office essential services, visiting companies can take advantage of news and information services from the regional organisations, with background information on the local business climate and coming events. Some of the regions host trade fairs. These have separate organisers and are not part of the Euro Office initiative but, nonetheless, access to them can be helped by working through the same regional bodies. Bonnes explains: “Small companies often cannot afford to buy a stand at this sort of event, like the SAME Microelectronics event in Alpes Maritimes, or the µSYS event in Berlin. We negotiate a free or low-price stand that can be shared by several small companies – again, we work on a reciprocal arrangement by linking fairs in different regions.”

There is also a payback for high-tech regions, technology parks or innovation centres in becoming a member of the Euro Office initiative. They can gain networking opportunities with other leading innovative regions and also expand their own business, quite apart from the original aim of supporting existing or future start-up companies.

(1) Further information is available on http://www.euro-office.net

(2) See http://www.apliway.com/

Current Euro Office regions, and their specialist areas:

Alpes Maritimes (France) – ICT, life sciences, tourism
Berlin (Germany) – ICT, media technology, biotechnology, optics, materials and microsystems, transport, and environmental technologies

Helsinki (Finland) – ICT, software clusters, mobile and wireless applications, microsystems, and paper technologies

Munich (Germany) – multimedia, advertising, IT consulting, environmental technology

South Sweden – information and media technology, life sciences, material and microsystems, environmental, energy, and biotechnologies

Stockholm (Sweden) – ICT, bioscience

SwissParks.ch (Switzerland) – ICT, microsystems, business incubators

Torino (Italy) – ICT, electronic, energy, mechanical, medical and biotechnologies

Contact

A. André, G. Bonnes,
Cicom Business and Innovation Centre, France

Tl. +33 4 9300 6000

Fx. +33 4 9300 6001

andre@cicom.fr

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