HÚSAVIK, ICELAND
Emil B. Karlsson, Centre for Retail Studies, Bifröst University, Iceland
9:20 Opening and Introductions
Riitta Alajärvi‐Kauppi, Chairman of the meeting
9:30 Address by the Chariman of Board at the Icelandic Regional Development Institute
Þóroddur Bjarnason
9:50 Results of the RRR project
Eila Seppänen, Kemi‐Tornio University of Applied Sciences, Finland
10:10 Coffee break
10:40 Retailer success story, Finland
Riitta Pesonen, Asuste‐Kenkä Pesonen, Pelkosenniemi
11:00 Retailer success story, Iceland
Ásgeir Einarsson, Hlíðarkaup, Sauðárkrókur
11:20 Retailer success story, Scotland
Elaine Newton, Uig Community Co‐operative, Timsgarry
11:40 Retailer success story, Ireland
Manus Kelly, DNG Kelly Auctioneers, Falcarragh
Seamus McGee, McGee’s Service Station, Falcarragh
12:00 Lunch at Heiðarbær, visit to the hot springs area and local greenhouse
13:30 Merkur Programme
Helge Schei, Norway
13:50 A regional business consultant’s experience
Katrín María Andrésdóttir, SSNV Business Development, Iceland
Noel Ferguson, Employee Intelligence, Northern Ireland
14:30 Key note speaker – The future of rural retailing
Eric Calderwood, University of Stirling, Scotland
15:00 Coffee break
15:30 Sustainability of the RRR project – Next steps
Panel of participants
PRESENTATIONS & VIDEOS:
Welcoming address
Emil B. Karlsson, Bifrost University, Iceland
Address by the CEO of the Icelandic Regional Development Institute
Results of the RRR project
Retailer success story, Finland
Retailer success story, Scotland
Retailer success story, Ireland
Manus Kelly, DNG Auctioneers, Falcarragh
Merkur Programme
A regional business consultant's experience
Key note speaker - The future of rural retailing
Final conference report by Scottish seminar participants
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Project group visiting Ireland and Northern Ireland 25th - 26th January 2011
RRR Team, together with retailers from Scotland and consultants and a retailer from Iceland, visited Northern Ireland and Ireland at the end of January. We started the first day at the University of Ulster with the project steering group meeting and continued with the project meeting. Partners presented their regional RRR models and project implementation plans for the year 2011. The meeting proved transnational cooperation successful: partners had benchmarked each other's best practises and had adopted the best solutions for their RRR models. There is also continuing cooperation concerning utilisation of common learning materials etc. After meetings, we had a pleasure to visit Giants Causeway and Bushmills Distillery.
On the second day of our visit, we departed Portrush and travelled to Falcarragh via Derry and Letterkenny. In Letterkenny Michael Tunney from Donegal County Council Enterprise Board told about their activities in the field of business development in the region. During the day we also visited a couple of shops (please check "Retailer in a Rural Region"), the Sean Bheairic and Lakeside Centre in Dunlewey. Next morning we started our journey back home from Ballybofey.
Local press published stories about the RRR project and our visit:
UNIVERSITY of Ulster business experts are bringing their knowledge to bear on helping rural retailers survive in an increasingly competitive marketplace. Helping retailers in rural communities to grow is the focus of a University of Ulster workshop event series which kicked off with an event in Coleraine this week.
The workshop event followed on from recent research examining rural retailers’ ability to compete in increasingly difficult market conditions. The research is part of a multi-million pound project - ‘Retail in Rural Regions’ – involving a number of other countries across Europe.
Professor Barry Quinn, who is leads the project with Dr Karise Hutchinson, said: “This workshop is one of many ways that we have identified as being a practical support to our rural businesses, which will have a tangible impact in helping them to survive and grow and subsequently helping to improve service quality in rural communities.” Read the whole story on University of Ulster's web...
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The topic of the conference is “Stimulating Growth, Social Inclusion and Equal Opportunities in rural areas through enhanced rural business development and core service provision”. This topic corresponds with the NPP 2007-2013 horizontal principle of equal opportunities. In addition, the conference is connected to the European Year for combating poverty and social exclusion, 2010.The conference presentations will shortly be available on Northern Periphery Programme's event page on the tab "Documents".
RRR Project in EIRASS Conference in Bolu, Turkey, July 2010
Barry Quinn, Karise Hutchinson and Emil B. Karlsson participated in EIRASS Conference. The aim of the EIRASS conference was to bring together scholars from various disciplines and countries interested in retailing and consumer services. The conference gave delegates an opportunity to present their completed projects but also to present work in progress.
RRR Presentation
New Reasearch Gives Voice To Rural Retailers
Helping retailers in rural communities to survive and grow will be the focus of a University of Ulster Conference this week. Retail experts from the Ulster Business School presented findings from interviews with 41 local business owners from across Northern Ireland at the Lodge Hotel, Coleraine, on Wednesday 3rd March 2010.
The recent research examines rural retailers’ existing strengths, weaknesses and the factors affecting their ability to survive and grow in a very challenging market place. Read more on University of Ulster's news pages
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RRR project visited Norway on February 2010 and benchmarked local multifunctioning shops. Please read stories on "Retailer in Rural Region".
Norwegian press wrote several stories during our visit:
Story in Nationen
Story of Coop Etnedal
Venabygd Handel and Joker Enger
Venabygd Handel
RRR project participated in LAVA09, the NPP Annual Conference 2009 between 10th - 11th November '09.
Olga Biskopto from Faroese Islands, Kári Joensen from Iceland and Eila Seppänen and Nina Mäki from Finland introduced RRR project to the conference participants in Lava'09 project exhibition. In overall, people felt that our project is important to NPP region. Participation into conference opened our eyes in terms of new approaches to project activities.
The conference aimed to initiate a new generation of industry development, in which industry development takes place in collaboration between traditional and creative sectors.
This conference gathered more than 100 participants from 9 programme partner countries to witness innovative hands-on collaboration between traditional sector and creative sector industries. In addition, the conference demonstrated how creative sectors can add value to business and organisational development in both private and public sector.
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RRR project visited Norway on February 2010 and benchmarked local multifunctioning shops. Please read stories on "Retailer in Rural Region".
Norwegian press wrote several stories during our visit:
Story in Nationen
Story of Coop Etnedal
Venabygd Handel and Joker Enger
Venabygd Handel
RRR project participated in LAVA09, the NPP Annual Conference 2009 between 10th - 11th November '09.
The conference aimed to initiate a new generation of industry development, in which industry development takes place in collaboration between traditional and creative sectors.
This conference gathered more than 100 participants from 9 programme partner countries to witness innovative hands-on collaboration between traditional sector and creative sector industries. In addition, the conference demonstrated how creative sectors can add value to business and organisational development in both private and public sector.
