From 9th to 12th of September, an event called the „Riga Food“ took place in Riga. Professionals come together to the biggest Baltic food industry fair Riga Food to derive ideas, knowledge and information allowing further professional and business development. The event connects companies looking for production partners with manufacturers, service providers and suppliers within the food industry. It offers an insight of developing innovative enterprises, food and lifestyle interaction, new technologies. The participants sign contracts with producers, establish contacts with subcontractors, get useful information for business management and development and learn the most up-to-date information on the latest trends.
The Estonian Chamber of Agriculture and Commerce organized a joint visit and stand for Estonian food producers. GoSmart’s innovation broker Laura Gredzens was invited by one of the TIBS clients with whom she has been cooperating for several months now. The company was interested to find cooperation partners in Latvia who could help with distribution of their products and with whom to develop new products. Estonian innovation broker Laura Gredzens was also a great help to other Estonian SME-s with her Latvian language skills, trying to attract more Latvians to the Estonian stand while introducing with the products and companies.
Although the fair did not have as many consumers as in previous years, it was still a very successful event. It was very good to see that Estonians had come out with such a large group. It was even more pleasing to see on the spot that many companies were previous TIBS customers with whom innovation broker had previously met directly or communicated by phone or e-mail. This event strengthened the relationship between the innovation broker and entrepreneurs. In addition, it provided an opportunity for companies to inform about the extension of the GoSmart BSR project.
Innovation broker also made new contacts during the fair and made quick pre-treatment for them. Cooperation with these companies will definitely continue after the event. Latvian innovation broker Ilona Platonova also visited the fair, so it was a great opportunity to assess potential collaboration between Estonian and Latvian companies. Innovation brokers were looking for new cooperation partners to create new Joint Transnational Smart Strategies between Estonian and Latvian companies.
After the event, both innovation brokers visited the Estonian Embassy in Riga, where they met with Estonian ambassador Mr. Arti Hilpus and their employee Signe Millere, who is a business and investment advisor and has a similar job as the innovation brokers, but mainly focuses on strengthening sales of Estonian companies in Latvia. Innovative cooperation is still transnational innovation brokers network’s difference in working with businesses. Both innovation brokers were very happy about this visit and will definitely cooperate in the future as well.
Innovation broker considers it very important to participate in such events – it contributes a lot to the work of TIBS!
