An army of advocates is being recruited to champion entrepreneurship and innovation through developing greater interactions across the Welsh economy - from academics to venture capitalists.
BeTheSpark is a million miles away from a traditional clipboard assessed like business support programme, but will encourage deeper levels of collaboration - with the aim of creating more innovative businesses, and as a result a more competitive economy - across the five key stakeholder groups of:
- Entrepreneurs
- Government
- Corporates
- Academia
- Risk capital
BeTheSpark was launched earlier this week with 300 advocates, across the five stakeholder groups, pledging support at a conference in Cardiff.
The aim, through 'amplification,' is to bring 3,000 advocates together for a conference later this year - with more backers in the years ahead.
And three Welsh Government ministers, in Ken Skates (economy) Julie James (science and skills) and Kirsty Williams (education) were at the event and pledged their support - which will now filter down into how their respective departments interact with the other stakeholders.
How it started
In 2015 Wales successfully applied to join the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Regional Entrepreneurship Acceleration Program (REAP).
And BeTheSpark is a direct result of that initiative to connect all key partners to support the right conditions for innovation driven entrepreneurship in Wales.
Members of the Welsh REAP panel include entrepreneurs Hayley Parsons and James Taylor, chief executive of technology investment fund, Wesley Clover, Simon Gibson, enterprise academic Prof Dylan Jones-Evans and chief executive of one of Wales' leading technology firms, IQE, Dr Drew Nelson.
REAP has concluded that the higher the level of connections between the five key drivers, the more successful are regional and national economies.
Video: Prof Bill Aulet of MIT encouraging greater collaboration in Wales
The Welsh REAP team were also paired up with teams, also made up of representatives from the five stakeholder groups, in regions across the world, including those from Japan, Chile, Saudi Arabia, Norway, China, Thailand and Israel.
They analysed the strengths and weaknesses of their respective economies.
Prof Gibson said: "The best performing regions in the world have the highest levels of connectivity between the five stakeholder groups.
"And an optimised economy captures ideas, supplies the relevant skills, builds infrastructure that supports advancement, attracts risk capital and seizes opportunities.
"And successful economies encourage innovation driven entrepreneurship (IDE) through high levels of interaction. In our lengthy evaluation, it was clear we have much to do in Wales to achieve a well-connected IDE environment."
And Prof Gibson described current connectivity between business, entrepreneurs and universities as "sub-optimal." Addressing this will be a key aim of the initiative.
He added: "On average only 3% of our nation's commercialisation is sourced from universities, which considering our investment in research and development is disappointing.
"Likewise you can count the number of Welsh public companies with a market capitalisation of more than £500m on one hand.
"After a professional career spanning all five stakeholder groups, I have been seen opportunities lost for more than 40 years because of siloed self-interest and a lack of connectivity.
"However, a national economy with five stakeholders working in sync and moving in the same direction will propel us forward with new found momentum."
BeTheSpark will be creating a digital platform for all five stakeholder groups to interact - capturing the 'wisdom of the crowd', sharing challenges, opportunities and identifying funding soruces.
This could say be the health service and academics in Wales opening up their intellectual property to entrepreneurs and investors.
Prof Gibson said: "With support from MIT and others we desire to make the BeTheSpark platform the go-to portal for the best thinking practices from around the world, as well as giving everyone access to useful software such as innovation and engagement toolkits.
"What we need are support structures that are visible, simple and connected. We concluded thing Wales needs is yet another programme for organisation."
He reflected that through the benchmarking with other partners on REAP, it was "delusion" to think that "everything we are doing in Wales is fine and world class."
Although he said what came out the analysis was that Wales is a world leading in some fields, including commerce insurance - not just firms like Admiral but in having some of the world's best price comparisons players too, such as Gocompare and Moneysupermarket.
Prof Gibson added: "This initiative is not a call for a large funding resources from government. We are, however, pleading for a conscience effort in policy making to always consider how an such decisions would complement connectivity and inter-working of the five stakeholder groups.
Why? Because, it is within the framework of that connectivity that we will find renewed momentum for the Welsh economy."
Ministerial reaction
Mr Skates said: “BeTheSpark provides key figures with an interest in driving forward entrepreneurship and innovation with a genuine opportunity to work together in meaningful partnership through the sharing of ideas and knowledge .
“Entrepreneurship and innovation driven enterprises are crucial to the health and future of our economy. This event and programme is about harnessing our collective power and doing all we can across the economy to encourage innovation and entrepreneurship so that it flourishes across Wales.”
Ms James, said: “There are many great innovative initiatives happening in institutions, organisations, businesses, towns, villages and in the digital space right here in Wales, but part of our challenge is to connect these initiatives together and make them visible so that they can inspire future thinkers and entrepreneurs to take action.
"The wider aims and objectives of BeTheSpark is about bringing about those connections and joined up working practices and I fully support this movement.”
