The first partnership event took place in Udine (Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Italy) on December 12th-13th, 2003 and it was located in the Exhibition Centre of Udine (www.fieraudine.it).

The event was focused on three main sectors:

1. advanced technologies for food industry;
2. mechanics, including electro-mechanics and construction technologies;
3. environmental management technologies

PROGRAMME

The partnership event included:

• one plenary conference to analyse the EU enlargement process;
• thematic workshops on in-depth issues per each sector;
• planned bilateral meetings between enterprises and economic operators;
• two permanent exhibition areas dedicated to regional, national and international financing institutions and business organisations promoting their services for SME internationalisation and innovation:
  
  
  •   a regional exhibition area hosting both the stands of the Candidate Countries (Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania, Slovenia) and the stands of the EU-Border Member States (Austria and Greece).
    
    
  •   a thematic exhibition area hosting the institutions of Friuli-Venezia Giulia Region:
    • SPRINT - the Regional Desk for Internationalisation, including Finest, SACE, Simest, Informest, ICE, Regional Union of Chambers of Commerce;
    • Autonomous Region Friuli-Venezia Giulia;
    • Euro Info Centre Friuli-Venezia Giulia;
    • Innovation R&D Agencies, including AREA Science Park, Sviluppo Italia, Agemont for the Mountain Areas Development, Friuli Innovation Consortium, Demonstrative Experimental Farms Department of Pordenone Province Agricultural Directorate.

BENEFICIARIES

The direct beneficiaries of the initiative were:

• micro companies,
• crafts companies,
• small and medium enterprises,
• sector associations,
• specialised development agencies,
• institutional SME service providers,

operating in the Countries covered by the project: Austria, Greece, Slovenia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Spain, Belgium and Italy.
Almost 300 participants attended the partnership event in Udine.

CATALOGUE OF ITALIAN COMPANIES

All the Italian companies participating at the Udine event are collected in a CATALOGUE freely accessible on-line and downloadable.

EVALUATION RESULTS

The outcomes of Udine partnership event were evaluated on short and mid-term basis, in order to check the degree of satisfaction of the participants and to evaluate the impact of the initiative in a middle-term perspective. The results thus obtained were satisfactory in both cases!

PICTURES