As we pointed out last year in this section, in the spring of 2012, we started out on another process of strategic reflection. The process established our lines of work for the period up to 2016. It was a rapid and effective process. By the autumn of 2012, we had already detected the main challenges of the sector in which HEGAN could contribute value:
And with an idea that was applied in all these areas: the culture of cooperation.
In early 2013, we began by focusing on the first two challenges, which, in our opinion, are linked directly to the competitiveness of our associate companies. Some of our key actions included the organisation of seminars on the opportunities in the engine value chain, attended by more than 100 people. We put into motion pilot processes to improve our position in relation to target clients and provided promotion and support for the creation of an advanced manufacturing centre.
We activated the other four challenges, which are of a more horizontal nature and must be used to support the first two by contributing competitiveness in an indirect manner, with the usual tasks and activities of the association: training and search for talent, diffusion, communications and promotions, and competitive intelligence.
Moreover, during the last financial period there were three actions to which we dedicated a large number of resources and a great deal of energy: Aerotrends, Le Bourget and CARE.
Aerotrends secured its status as the most important aerospace event in Spain in 2006, by combining talks and B2B at the same venue. In 2013, following the signing of an agreement, HEGAN began to support the BEC –Bilbao Exhibition Centre- for the organisation of this event within the 2013 Industrial Summit last September. The show brought together.
126 companies and organisations for business meetings and talks attended by more than 200 people.
‘Le Bourget’, the Paris Air Show, is the most important and oldest air show in the world. The first show was held in 1909 and the 2013 show was number 50! The HEGAN cluster association, set up in December 1997, has taken part in this fair every year since 1999. In other words, HEGAN deploys a great deal of resources to set up a common space for meetings and work for the sector in which our members can find opportunities, new contacts and collaborations.
Lastly, we should like to highlight our involvement in the EACP initiative, which led to the launching of the CARE project (FP7), in which more than 40 regional aerospace clusters collaborate in a network to develop the sector. The aim of this Project is to help to improve the position of our companies to ensure that the sector occupies a leading position in the field of green technologies in air transport and is already contributing value to our members.
We are gaining visibility at a European level and this has contributed to the good image of our companies. We are taking advantage of the “best practices” and “mentoring” that are being generated. There are reports and completed DAFOs that we are already making great use of and it represents an opportunity for us to take part in events with other aeronautics regions. One of the initiatives that is creating the greatest amount of interest among European companies in the CARE Project are the TIGERs (Topic Interest Groups for the Emergence of Research), created with the main aim of launching proposals in cooperation that can be submitted to the ‘Horizon 2020’ programme or any other European aid scheme.
