On 12th November 2015 the partners of the FIERE project met at Cashel, Ireland for their Final Conference and Final Meeting. The FIERE project has been examining how public and community/voluntary organisations could be more entrepreneurial and innovative in the way they do their business and deliver services to their clients.
In the morning the transnational Final Conference with the title “Public and Community Sectors adapting to change through Innovation & New Ways of Doing Things” took place. The audience learnt about the work carried out by the partners since 2014 and about the pilot short-form Entrepreneurial & Innovative Skills Training Programme that has been developed for staff and volunteers of public and community/voluntary organisations. The second part of the conference presented Case studies showcasing how organisations have successfully implemented “innovative” and “entrepreneurial” ways for improving their impact. Speakers included Senan Cooke about Dunhill Rural Enterprises and Ecopark in County Waterford; Seán Keating about Tipperary County Council’s merger project and Mary Fogarty from the The Cottage Shop & Tea Room in Loughmore. Stefanía Kristinsdóttir from Iceland also spoke about an initiative in Iceland to tackle rural communities suffering economic decline.
In the afternoon, the representatives of the seven partner organisations from Iceland, Ireland, Greece, Bulgaria, Portugal and Italy held their Final Meeting. The meeting was an important moment to discuss about the last activities and final steps of project implementation. Partners exchanged on experiences with the pilot workshops on entrepreneurial and innovative skills: the feedback received from trainers and participants has been very positive in all countries, and all partners reported great interest from regional organisations in the skills training development programme. The complete Handbooks for Instructors and Learners (as well as all other project results of the FIERE project) are available for download at: fiereproject.com/reports/.
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This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This communication reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.
