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Prof. Torger Reve presents his findings on “Norwegian global knowledge hubs”

Event Date  :  Tuesday, May 15, 2012 from 1:30 PM to 3:30 PM (CT) , Minneapolis, MN

 Professor Torger Reve, an international expert on economic competitiveness, will present the findings of his latest research on Norwegian global knowledge hubs.

He will present his findings especially on super clusters of knowledge-based industrial development characterized by a high concentration of innovative industrial actors interacting closely with advanced research institutions, venture capital and competent ownership.

Prof. Reve has extensively researched Norway’s maritime global knowledge hub and will describe how Norway developed its unique global position by combining three major factors including ocean, technology, and knowledge.  Reve’s Norwegian perspective will be used to present implications for Minnesota. He will explain how interaction between organizations with different specialties is essential for innovation and is a key driver for knowledge transfer among enterprises and how nations, regions, and cities must now compete to be the most attractive locations for knowledge-intensive industries.

Moderator:  L. Burke Murphy, Project Leader, MSP Regional Cluster Initiative

Panelists:

  • Margaret Anderson Kelliher, President, Minnesota High Tech Association
  • Terje Mikalsen, Partner/CEO, Tysvar LLC; Chairman, Norwegian American Clean Tech Alliance
  • Stan Harpstead, CTO, Rubigo Therapeutics, Inc.; President, RST Technology, Inc.
  • Steve Kelley, Senior Fellow and Director, Center for Science, Technology, and Public Policy, Humphey School of Public Affairs

Professor Torger Reve is the Wilh Wilhelmsen Chair in Strategy and Industrial Competitiveness at the BI Norwegian Business School in Oslo, Norway.  He also heads the Center for Maritime Competitiveness.

Reve’s research has focused on marketing channels, business strategy, inter-organizational relations and industrial competitiveness.  He has published 12 books on topics as boards of directors, business strategy, strategic alliances, organization theory, project and international management. He has analyzed industries as oil and gas, shipping, banking, telecommunications and retailing, and has been a strategy consultant to top management in many corporations.

Torger Reve has a Ph.D. in marketing from Northwestern University.  He also holds two masters degrees in business administration from the Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration in Bergen, Norway, and a B.A. degree in liberal arts from Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, Minnesota.

For further information, visit the link.

Greening the Future Awards 2012

Deadline- 20 April,  2012

Countries/Region- South Africa

Mail & Guardian’s prestigious Greening the Future Awards and supplements, invites application to showcase the success stories of climate action, innovation in renewable energy, action to combat climate change and strategic management of natural resources during -World Environment Week – conference in June 2012, the finalists and winners will be honored at a glittering awards ceremony as well as in a special supplement featured in the newspaper on Friday June 8 2012.

 CATEGORIES FOR 2012   Entries are sought from:

  • Business Award – (includes Stated-owned-enterprises – SOE’s) eg Transnet, Eskom
  • Not-for-profit Award – Environmental best practice
  • Sponsored by Nedbank
  • National and local government
  • Schools and institutions
  • Agriculture

Awards will be made for the following:

  • Water Care and water management (Aimed at showcasing and encouraging efforts to preserve water) Sponsored by ABB
  • Energy efficiency and Carbon Management (This category will award oganisations which
  • demonstrate pioneering efforts to conserve energy.) Sponsored by ABB
  • Innovation in renewable
  • Biodiversity/natural resource management/conservation and environmental improvement

For more information, visit this link

How Cambodia’s IDE won the 2010 Nestlé Prize in Creating Shared Value

Nestlé Prize in Creating Shared Value recognizes a project or innovation in the area of water, nutrition or rural development implemented by an NGO, individual or a small business. The Prize was first awarded in 2010 to International Development Enterprises (IDEC) in Cambodia for its innovative, market-based approach to increasing agricultural productivity and income for Cambodian smallholder farmers.

The strategy applied by IDE for this was to create a network of small entrepreneurs known as “Farm Business Advisors” (FBAs) who work independently to provide high-quality products and advice to small-scale farmers so that the latter can improve their farming techniques and income. The FBAs work like franchisees linked to a central franchisor that provides training and business support. One interesting product marketed by FBAs is the affordable drip irrigation kit, which reduces water use and labour while improving yields.

An important element of sustainability in the project is the co-dependence of the FBAs and the small-scale farmers. If the small-scale farmers use their services and improve their income, the FBAs also earn revenue and profit from their services.

The Nestlé Prize helped expand the project by scaling up the services to an additional 20,000 people in Cambodia. To learn more about this project, visit this link and watch the video below.

NGOs who won the Out of Box Prize 2010

In August 2010, Community Toolbox, a global resource of free information on essential skills for building healthy communities had announced the Out of the Box Prize 2010 to honor innovative approaches to promoting community health and development worldwide. NGOs and other groups working in the areas of community health, education, urban or rural development, poverty, the environment, social justice or other related issues of importance to communities in any part of the world were invited to apply for this Prize.

There were two prizes under this award: Grand Prize which had $5000 cash award and Second Prize with $2000 cash award and both the prize winners would get a free customized WorkStation for their group.

According to a recent announcement, Uhuru Child in Kenya is the winner for the Grand Prize for its  Jikaze Internally Displaced Persons Resettlement Village Project implemented in Maai Mahiu, Central Province, Kenya. The project is a sustainable re-settlement village for 900 internally displaced persons following the Kenyan post-election violence in 2008 executed through a microfinance loan project for families and educational scholarships for their children.

The Second Prize winner is the Fountain of Hope Life Center that is working to help HIV and AIDS-infected children receive equal opportunities academically and in extracurricular activities. In 2007, it implemented an innovative project to address the high dropout rate of girls from school. Girls were dropping out from school and were struggling academically because of staining their uniforms during menstruation. Fountain of Hope organized donations of sanitary pads from community shops and supermarkets starting by asking for just a single packet of sanitary pads, according to James N. Waruiru, Fountain of Hope’s Project Coordinator. The initiative now supports more than 250 young women.

You can read about other finalists of this Prize at this link.