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Birkbeck hosts 2016 Uddevalla symposium

Birkbeck is hosting the 19th annual Uddevalla Symposium on entrepreneurship and innovation between 30th June and 2nd July – the first time the conference has been held in the UK.

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Birkbeck is hosting the 19th annual Uddevalla Symposium on entrepreneurship and innovation between 30th June and 2nd July – the first time the conference has been held in the UK.

This year’s Symposium – themed around “Geography, Open Innovation, Diversity and Entrepreneurship” – will examine the role of small, entrepreneurial firms in the innovation ecosystem, an area often seen as being dominated by technology giants like Microsoft and Google.

The Symposium has developed significantly since it was first established in 1998 at University West, Uddevalla in Sweden, consistently drawing an international group of researchers and practitioners in the field of entrepreneurship and innovation.

Reflecting the School of Business, Economics and Informatics’ participation in TRIGGER – Transforming Institutions by Gendering Contents and Gaining Equality in Research – which aims to increase the number of women where they are underrepresented in different areas of universities, this year’s Symposium will have a strong focus on the experiences of women in both entrepreneurship and innovation.

The diversity of keynote presentations reflects this focus, with speeches from:

  • Professor Colette Henry from Dundalk Institute of Technology in Ireland, looking at women as entrepreneurs and innovators in the sciences;
  • Professor Barbara Orser, Deloitte Chair in the Management of Growth Enterprises University of Ottawa Telfer School of Management, Canada, who will examine feminine capital as a tool to unlock the power of women entrepreneurs;
  • Associate Professor at Georgia Institute of Technology, Jennifer Clark, looking at smart cities and social entrepreneurship and in particular, open innovation spaces.

As well as being hosted at Birkbeck, the Symposium is being chaired by Professor Helen Lawton Smith, Professor of Entrepreneurship in Birkbeck’s Department of Management. She is also leading a special session exploring differences in gender in explaining patterns of entrepreneurship and innovation.

Dr Frederica Rossi and Dr Fred Guy, also from the Department of Management at Birkbeck, will also be leading a special session on technology transfer and open innovation.

Speaking in advance of the Symposium, Professor of Entrepreneurship at Birkbeck, Professor Helen Lawton Smith – who is chairing the conference – said:

“To be the first institution in the UK to host the Uddevalla Symposium is well-deserved recognition of the reputation that Birkbeck has built for excellence in entrepreneurship and innovation research.”

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