TALLINN'S BFIF FY08 REPORT

UNCLAS TALLINN 000368

SIPDIS

DEPT FOR EEB/CBA, EEB/CIP AND EUR/NB
HELSINKI FOR SCO MCCLEARY

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: ECON ETRD BEXP AMGT ABUD BTIO EINV EN
SUBJECT: TALLINN'S BFIF FY08 REPORT

REF: A) STATE 72175
B) TALLINN 212
C) TALLINN 359


1. (U) Summary: Embassy Tallinn received USD 6,500
from the Business Facilitation Incentive Fund (BFIF)
to bring three leading U.S. science and technology
parks representatives to the international innovation
conference "Baltic Dynamics 2008", held in Tartu,
Estonia September 3-5, 2008. The U.S. speakers had
two days of meetings in Tallinn with hi-tech start up
firms, and addressed over 250 participants of the
conference in Tartu. The event furthered post's MSP
goal of promoting economic growth and prosperity,
through encouraging bilateral cooperation on science
and technology. Post used 4,754.85 USD for the
project and returns 1,745.15 to BFIF. End Summary.


2. (U) In early 2008, Post had consultations with the
Enterprise Estonia Silicon Valley office
representative Andrus Viirg and Tallinn Technology
Park (Tehnopol) representative Raivo Tamkivi about
bringing U.S. experts to the 2008 Baltic Dynamics
Conference (BDC). BDC is an annual conference of
technology parks and business incubators which rotates
among the three Baltic countries. Viirg and Tamkivi
agreed to recruit senior representatives from the
Silicon Valley Market Access Center, and Research
Triangle Park, NC. As both organizations are well
known and in high demand worldwide to speak at such
conferences, Post applied for BFIF funds to cover some
of the travel costs associated with attendance at the
conference in Tartu by these U.S. experts. To
maximize their visit to Estonia, we also worked with
Enterprise Estonia and Tehnopol to schedule separate
meetings with select Estonian hi-tech start-up
companies located at the Tehnopol Technology Park in
Tallinn. We arranged with the organizers of Baltic
Dynamics 2008 to include the BFIF-funded guests as
speakers, giving them the opportunity to address the
more than 250 conference attendees. Following
approval from EEB/CBA, we confirmed the participation
of Mr. Weddle, CEO of Research Triangle Park, Chuck
Erickson, CEO of the San Jose, CA Market Access Center
(MAC) in Silicon Valley and Omar Mencin, Managing
Director of the MAC.


3. (SBU) Breakdown of expenses:

USD 2,239.57 Grant to Rick Weddle, CEO of Research
Triangle Park, NC to cover the cost of
his airfare
USD 70.17 Rent of a meeting room in Radisson hotel
on 09/03
USD 1,767.57 Lodging of the U.S. participants in
Tallinn
USD 431.81 Lodging of the U.S. participants in
Tartu
USD 245.73 Travel costs of Econ/Commercial/EU
Assistant Reene Sepp to the conference
in Tartu

Total: USD 4,754.85

Post leveraged money with the Silicon Valley MAC
representatives to cover their own airfare as they
were already traveling to Helsinki, Finland prior to
the conference.


4. (U) The 2008 Baltic Dynamics Conference attracted
significant high-level participation. Estonian
President, Toomas Hendrik Ilves gave the opening
address. This year over 250 people registered from
over 20 countries, including China, Mexico, and
Russia.

The conference focused upon the following main topics:

- The Global Context for Innovation: Discussions on
recent developments in major world markets;
- Environment and Energy: Relevant approaches and
case studies on how current developments,
challenges and constraints in environment and
energy sectors can stimulate innovation in a
broad range of companies and public sector
organizations;
- Science and Technology Parks: Novel and

innovative approaches on the changing role of
science and technology parks;
- Security, the Internet and Innovation: Relevant
case studies on how the problems and challenges
related to security and Internet can stimulate
innovation and strengthen the competitiveness of
companies.

Rick Weddle spoke on the new generation of science and
technology parks. Omar Mencin gave a presentation on
the importance of marketing new products, and Mr.
Chuck Erickson spoke on "The business incubator as a
soft landing zone." All presentations are available
online at: www.teaduspark.ee/?q=/eng/BD


5. (U) The organizers of Baltic Dynamics 2008 were
very grateful to Post for our support of this year's
conference. As Estonian companies are increasingly
interested in the U.S. market, all lectures led by
U.S. speakers were well attended. Our contributions
to this event complimented well the spring 2008 visits
by EEB/CIP DAS David Gross to Tallinn (Ref B) and by
Estonian Minister of Economy Juhan Parts to Silicon
Valley, which had focused on enhancing technology
cooperation between Estonia and the United States, and
business-to-business linkages. Our U.S. guests
benefited from the company meetings in Tallinn and
Tartu outside of the BDC framework, as they provided
an overview of rising hi-tech stars in Estonia. (Ref
C) Representatives of some of the companies are now
considering opening offices at U.S. science parks. In
some cases, the meetings helped to dispel notions of
how easy it is to break into the world market, even
with an innovative product, thereby helping to focus
Estonian entrepreneurs' efforts where they will have
the most impact. This event also furthered post's MSP
goal of promoting economic growth and prosperity,
through encouraging bilateral cooperation on science
and technology. Post will continue contact with all
U.S. participants for further cooperation.


6. Back-up documentation on expenditures will be
faxed to Gale Gray, EEB/EX


7. Point of Contact at Post: Economic Officer Robert
Hollister, ph: +372-668-8107, HollisterRM@state.gov.
Post appreciates the support of EEB/CBA and EEB/EX for
these projects.

PHILLIPS