Sofia Händel, project manager from the municipality of Norrtälje.

Quadruple is a two year INTERREG project combining a gender perspective with cluster building and ICT. It's funded by Central Baltic INTERREG IV A programme and Tillväxtverket (Women's Resource Centre Programme). In this project, authorities, universities, entrepreneurs and civil society actors in Estonia, Finland and Sweden are joining their efforts in order to achieve the project goals:

• To strengthen women owned SME's through cooperation, international contacts and capacity building and practical experience in ICT (mobile phone services).
• Develop methods and tools for gender mainstreaming in cluster and innovation promotion programmes.

Sofia Händel, project manager (in the absence of Margareta Spång, BalticFem, Sweden) and Anneli Haabu, manager of the Läänemaa Tourism Association, Estonia.

The work with clusters differed in Sweden and Estonia since the development plan for E-teams has been adapted to local needs. The work in Sweden/Roslagen started one year ago with a meeting in Sweden trying to mobilize groups. In the beginning it was quite difficult to get entrepreneurs to come to the project meetings, many were complaining about lack of time and did not prioritise it because the aim of the E-team and network building was so vague. The process started slowly with workshops on various themes such as social media, web marketing, benefits of networking and cooperation, environmental counselling and so on. 

Gunilla Sterner, gender expert at the Stockholm County Administrative Board, Sweden.

In her presentation Gunilla focused on equal cluster creation built on the lessons learned from the project Quadruple Helix Central Baltic.

Prerequisites

At the start of the project all involved partners were unclear about the purpose of the project and it took a long time to interpret the meaning and what each of the partners would do. It was also difficult to sell the project to different target groups as they didn't know what they would get out of it. The local network was not strong enough to engage in international ventures. Also, language barriers existed for some small business owners, all do not speak English. In addition, the project was perceived to be very complex due to its many goals. So, it took a long time to get started.

Advice

When planning a cluster, it is important to allocate much time initially to commit all involved participants: entrepreneurs, authorities, organisations and NGOs, science and universities.

Gunilla Sterner, gender expert at the Stockholm County Administrative Board, Sweden.

Participants were divided into two groups by language, Swedish-Finnish and Estonian.

Ole Bergen, coordinator at the Åbo Akademi University, Finland.

Ole Bergen overviewed activities during 2009-2011 in a chronological resume. 

Ole Bergen, Åbo Akademi University, Finland

Ole made a visualisation of the MobiTourist app:

At first one should choose a country of interest which leads to a Google map. A user can choose among different categories: accommodation, food, sightseeing, events, activities, shopping, etc. By clicking on desirable option the user gets information about it and can even see the distance to that object. In case of events calendar is used instead of the distance indicator showing when the particular event takes place.

When the project is finished the application can be downloaded without costs. However, someone has to maintain it. Ole underlined that it has been hard to get tourist entrepreneurs to understand the possibilities the apps will give to them. But those E- teams who have been active and saw different possibilities have also been really positive.

Monica Lindgren, Johann Packendorff and Annika Skoglund, Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden.

When discussing entrepreneurship and innovation one sees a big gender gap. Looking at entrepreneurship in Europe it shows that women account for 30% of new firms and 25% of existing firms. Support structures, like local governments and EU authorities spend money and time in order to stimulate and support entrepreneurship. They put most money in high-tech and high-growth industries. Innovation support is connected to specific industry segments of interest where other branches sometimes can be lost (service, small scale business). Shortly, support structures sustains the current power relations and norm systems. The question is what can be done? Can following be considered as a solution?

Options:

• Let the problem solve itself
• Specific support structures for women's entrepreneurship (the risk is that at the end it is counter productive highlighting women entrepreneurs as different)
• Mainstreaming of gender into all innovation policy work (all entrepreneurs are treated the same way)

Anneli Kikkas, Saaremaa University Centre, Estonia.

Anneli Kikkas presented the study she carried out in order to identify conditions for female entrepreneurship in the Estonian entrepreneurial environment. The study itself won't improve the gap which is huge, but it's a first attempt.

Nowadays one discusses more often and openly gender inequality and discrimination, especially against women in Estonia which is why this study was focused on the conditions for women's entrepreneurship.

Altogether 23 women were interviewed and the interviews were carried out all over Estonia.

Lena Norrman, Jile Konsult, Sweden.

Lena underlined that in all three countries there are different ways of working which means that there is much experience to exchange with each other. All project partners have some common assets like a beautiful and unexplored nature and attractive sightseeing. Project members have various things to offer to tourists; not least knowledge and they are open-minded. So, what can be exported?