Personal presentations are invited for this international convention on enterprise promotion which will showcase best practice and innovation in the creation and support of small businesses world-wide. This is a unique opportunity for all business advisers, coaches, counsellors, consultants, educators, facilitators, financiers, mentors, teachers and trainers to promote their own successes and to network with like-minded specialists in SME creation and development from all around the world.

Preference will be given to speakers presenting short case studies, practical reports and videos on the promotion of entrepreneurship and the creation and support of new businesses in different countries. The aim of this Convention is to share experience of successful programmes and innovations, whilst highlighting the policy implications, so that the many organisations, agencies and individuals trying to stimulate enterprise all around the world can learn from each other and improve what they do.

The parallel workshops will comprise several sessions focussing on specialised topics within each theme, as listed on the Workshop Themes & Topics page.  Experts in the respective fields will chair all workshop sessions, which will be designed to facilitate open debate, dissemination of practical experience and helpful information together with feedback for the presenters.

PRESENTATION CATEGORIES

Speakers can be considered in three different categories:

Summaries of all presentations accepted will be published in the Convention Handbook and all complete presentations received on time will be published on the Convention website.   

An outline of the requirements and submission timetable for each category is given below.

Plenary Presentations – a comprehensive report on one of the main Convention Themes with details of best practices used and results achieved over several years operation.  (Maximum 20 minutes)

Workshop Presentations – a shorter report or a case study of a successful scheme within one of the six main themes, with evidence or examples of the results achieved.   (Maximum 15 minutes)

Panel Presentation & Debate - a series of bullet points to indicate the topics that could be covered verbally in a Panel Session and Debate within a specified theme.  (Maximum 10 minutes)

ALL PRESENTATIONS

Summaries should be submitted on-line using the templates provided for scheduling and publication in the Convention Handbook. Acceptance decisions on all presentations offered will be based on relevance to the overall Convention theme, the quality of the summary and its application in other locations.    Click here to see a sample page layout from the Convention Handbook.

SUBMISSION DEADLINES - Click here

IMPORTANT NOTE:  Your presentation may not be accepted if received after these deadline dates.

SUMMARY CONTENT

Please provide a short summary of your proposed presentation by 31st August. This will be printed verbatim in the Convention Handbook and it is your chance to explain - in no more than 400 words - why other participants should come and listen to you!  (Click here to see how the page will be formatted in the Handbook.) Ideally, therefore, you should provide some background; you should tell us what you do or what you did highlighting any innovation; you should describe the results; and you should draw out the lessons, both for practitioners and policy makers.

As the content of each presentation will vary the following notes are for guidance only, but if they are not relevant for your presentation, please ask for advice from the Secretariat.  Ideally summaries should be structured around the following sub-headings which may be amended to suit your topic:

• Title:  using no more than 85 characters including spaces – to fit into the printed Programmes

• Aims: State the main aims and objectives of the programme, the project undertaken or the nature of the practical problem demonstrated.  What is the presentation about and why is it important?

• Background: What previous programmes or experience is the presentation building upon? How does the presentation relate to other work on this topic?

• Action: What was done for which category of SMEs at which stage of growth?  How many SMEs have been involved?  What approach was used to capture practical evidence and results? 

• Results: What are the key successes or outcomes from the programme or experiences presented?   What are the limitations of the results presented?  What are the next steps in the project?

• Lessons: What are the implications of the project for one or more of the following groups – educators, entrepreneurs, policy makers, practitioners, support organisations or others?    

• Key Words:  Maximum of six key words or short phrases. (Limited to 20 characters each)

Click here to view a sample of the page layout as it will appear in the Convention Handbook.

SUBMISSION PROCEDURE

Summaries can only be submitted via the Convention website: www.enterprisepromotion.org/login  

If you have not registered or filled in an enquiry form for this Convention please enter your name and address details first. If you have filled in an Enquiry Form and wish to retrieve your details please click on the new password facility.   If you have previously registered or logged in and obtained a password, please enter your e-mail address and password in order to submit or edit your summary.

Please check the Workshop Themes & Topics page before proceeding with your summary submission, so that you know which is the most appropriate.

When you access the Summary Submission Form, co-authors’ names, job titles and organisations can be added, the Workshop and Topic selected and your summary text can be input to the set of boxes carrying the headings detailed above. These boxes have a count facility with a total showing after the last box, so you can check that you have input the right number of words (min. 200, max. 400). There is a limit of four co-authors per paper so that they can all be indexed in the Handbook and CD.

Once you click the ‘Submit’ button your information will be stored on our Summary database on the website and an automatic e-mail will be sent to you and to the Convention Co-ordinator. You can retrieve and edit your Summary at any time up to 30th September 2010 when they will go to press.

Summaries will be reviewed online and the results will be relayed to you via the Summary Edit page. You will receive an e-mail alert once the review has taken place, so you can check your status online. You should follow any guidance offered in the review and adjust your Summary if necessary. When your summary has been accepted the instructions for submitting your full presentation will be given.

REGISTRATION FEES

All Speakers whose presentations are accepted will be offered 25% discount off the full Registration Fee for the whole Convention, which includes the International Welcome Reception. However, they will have to cover their own travel, accommodation and subsistence.  (Discount is limited to one person per presentation.) 

At least one author must log-in to submit the Summary and then attend the Convention as a delegate.  The appropriate registration fee is payable when the full presentation is submitted.  If it is rejected for any reason then the fee paid will be refunded in full. 

ENQUIRY CONTACTS

Any queries on the content of your Summary and final Presentation should be addressed to:
Maggie Hall, Convention Co-ordinator at secretariat@enterprisepromotion.org   

Any Internet-related problems in submitting your Summary on-line should be addressed to:
Geoff Berrow, Web Systems Developer at webmaster@enterprisepromotion.org