Global Forum 2009 flyer.pdf

On behalf of the entire infoDev team, I want to let you all know that we are eagerly awaiting the 3rd infoDev Global Forum on Business Incubation. I look forward to seeing many of you in Florianopolis in October! As we continue to move ahead with preparations with our partner organizations in Brazil, I would like to take this opportunity to reiterate the importance of ensuring that the event is demand-driven, and that your input helps shape the Global Forum agenda.

At our last Global Forum in India in 2006, infoDev's global incubation community noted the importance of fostering ICT-enabled enterprise development in the developing world and called for the creation of Regional Networks for knowledge exchange. infoDev launched a range of activities over the past two years to increase its role in capacity-building, knowledge-sharing, monitoring and evaluation, and awareness-raising. It created five Regional Networks and launched a series of Regional Workshops throughout 2007-2008 across the world. Capacity-building sessions were organized for incubator managers, using the infoDev Incubator Toolkit and training curriculum. We commissioned a report on monitoring and evaluation to better understand the impact of the infoDev Business Incubator Initiative, and have invested in our online Incubator Support Center to enable virtual networking and knowledge-sharing for our Global Network between and beyond the opportunities to meet face-to-face.

The input you give to the 3rd Global Forum will therefore be essential to help shape not only the agenda for the meeting, but the growth and development of our huge global network. As we begin the journey towards our meeting in Brazil, I invite you to reflect on the theme for the Global Forum: Innovation and Venture
Creation for Inclusive Development and send us your thoughts on the following questions:

• What are some of the cutting-edge topics that you would like to hear more about at the Global Forum?
• Are there some specific activities that you would like to have the chance to participate in?
• What are some of the pressing issues related to innovation, business development & business incubation that we can focus on to empower entrepreneurs, alleviate poverty, and strengthen the link between technology, business and development?

Your input to helping shape the 3rd infoDev Global Forum program is highly valued and we hope to hear many new ideas from you soon!

Sincerely,

Valerie D'Costa
infoDev Program Manager

Please send us your input by e-mail to idisc@infodev.org with the subject line "Ideas for Global Forum 2009" by mid-April 2009.

For further information about infoDev's 3rd Global Forum, please visit iDISC's dedicated Global Forum webpages here.