Sharing the fundamentals of STP and AOI management

IASP Seville was an opportunity for professionals involved in innovation support and STP/AOI management to share their experience and expertise and learn from each other, but it also gave newcomers to the industry the chance to learn the essentials.

At the IASP Pre conference training seminar, sponsored by Ann Arbor SPARK (USA), newcomers, new CEOs and teams working on new STP/AOI projects in almost 40 countries heard from experts as they broke down the fundamentals of STP and AOI management, in an interactive one-day training seminar moderated by IASP’s Alicia Shelley, director of knowledge management and partnerships.

Kicking off with the fundamentals of the STP model, IASP CEO Ebba Lund described the essential building blocks, and the value of the IASP Strategigram when it comes to setting and monitoring an organisation’s strategic focus. She was followed by past IASP president Paul Krutko, who gave an overview of the AOI model, their similarities and differences, and their roots as community projects for sustainable regional development.

“We don’t help create companies just to survive, we help them to grow on the world market,” said Jean-François Balducchi, as he shared insights about business incubation and company creation from Atlanpole (France). It’s a crucial pillar of STP/AOI activity, and incubation and new companies are engines of growth in an ecosystem.

Mieke de Bruin (Utrecht Science Park, the Netherlands) focused on the broader provision of services to resident companies and the surrounding community, emphasising how parks organise serendipity to bring people together to innovate, alongside all their other services like office and lab space, incubators and accelerators, infrastructure to serve the community, attractive green surroundings that appeal to families and students, and more. Delegates also got a detailed look at one of the specialised value-added services parks are increasingly offering, with legal experts Robert Alderson and Mariella Massaro joining us to talk about the value of intangible assets and IP rights for small innovative companies. Attorneys from full-service legal firm Berggren (Finland), they gave a crash course on the different ways innovative companies protect their intellectual property, and shared the rationale behind Berggren’s 'Invention Hunt' workshops that help identify new patent-ready ideas from entrepreneurs and startups.

Effectively marketing an STP or AOI and communicating its mission is also key to success. "Find your purpose, spread your brand," recommended Fernando Luciano as he shared insights from Hotmilk in Brazil about how they defined a clear offer to their region, and how they went about communicating and marketing it. Events, social media, word of mouth, and organising market data all had a role to play, and each science park and area of innovation must decide which are most effective in their local context and for their specific audience.

With round table discussion time throughout the day, where participants could apply what they’d learned to their own specific context and get to know their global peers, the seminar wrapped up with a look at governance models.

Josep Piqué (La Salle Technova Barcelona, Spain) talked about the importance of a long-term vision, continuous evaluation and clear leadership. Local expertise leading to global reach and collaboration are key, he concluded, because: "it’s not about working a lot, it’s about everyone working together, and for a common purpose."