Good morning, The recent Annual Meeting in Baku (https://www.insme.org/18th-insme-annual-meeting-2/) was particularly important as it finally allowed for SME stakeholders to meet vis-à-vis again. The event, opened by the Minister of the Economy of Azerbaijan, gathered almost 200 attendees and more than 30 speakers with whom we discussed how to empower SMEs. In-person events matter because they generate trust, connection, and empathy from which come ideas and projects that I hope to develop thanks to your support throughout 2023 and beyond. Here below a summary of what’s to come in the next months, should one or more of these points meet your projects and work-plan do not hesitate to reach out and let me know: 1. the Baku State University (http://bsu.edu.az/en/welcome_to_baku_state_university) will become part of the INSME network, working together to bring research to SMEs thanks to the newly created Centre of Excellence; 2. the OECD Committee on SMEs and Entrepreneurship is planning the 4th SME Ministerial conference on 27-28 June 2023 in Paris; 3. at the end of the year, we kicked off the AccelerAction project (https://t.co/TNiNktRP7W?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Eembeddedtimeline%7Ctw...) , which aims to identify deep-tech acceleration programs across Europe and promote and enhance the services they offer; 4. our commitments to public procurement of innovation and green energy continue with the RaDAR-PPI (https://radar-ppi.com/) and the Supershine (https://www.insme.org/kick-off-meeting-of-the-supershine-project-in-rome/) projects respectively; 5. in the Mediterranean we are involved in the Euromed Clusters Forward (https://anima.coop/en/our-projects/euromed-clusters-forward/) project, coordinated by Anima Investment Network and aiming at strengthening Mediterranean clusters; 6. the "Crisis Costs for European SMEs - How COVID-19 changed the playing field for European SMEs (https://www.eesc.europa.eu/en/our-work/publications-other-work/publications/...) " research of the Economic and Social Committee (EESC), to which INSME contributed, was recently published; 7. the research produced for the Mediterranean Observatory on Youth Entrepreneurship and Innovation Ecosystems will also be published shortly in collaboration with CIEHAM; 8. next January INSME has been invited to attend the India SME Forum (https://www.indiasmeforum.org/) , if a delegation of SMEs is interested here is the link to apply (https://internationalsmeconvention.com/indian-b2b-registration.php) . This is just a teaser of the many things to come. In the meantime, I send my best wishes to you and your family for a happy Christmas holiday season and a bright 2023! Giovanni Giovanni Zazzerini Secretary General INSME - The International Network for SMEs zazzerini@insme.org (mailto:zazzerini@insme.org) · Tel: +390668806803 · Mobile: +393472488068 LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/giovannizazzerini/) · INSME.org (http://www.insme.org/) ============================================================ ** unsubscribe (https://insme.us16.list-manage.com/unsubscribe?u=47a0f24f628e4b7ec96b2f720&id=898be7f0ce&e=2d8317fc53&c=2aed2031fa)