Corvinus University Budapest in collaboration with the European Council of Small Business and Entrepreneurship (ECSB) and ERENET cordially invites you to a Pre-Conference Policy Forum on 18 November, 2009 in Budapest, Hungary, immediately before the main RENT Conference.

Pre-Conference Policy Forum:

ENTREPRENEURSHIP POLICY IN TIMES OF CRISIS

The 23rd RENT Conference will provide a forum for discussing some of the latest research evidence with respect to entrepreneurship and growth. The pre-Conference Policy Forum aims to generate an exchange of views and experiences between researchers, policy makers and practitioners on contemporary policy-related topics. By focusing on entrepreneurship policy at a time of crisis, the Pre-Conference Policy Forum will provide an opportunity to discuss the effects of the recession on SMEs and the responses of firms and policy makers in different parts of Europe.

Most of the discussion surrounding the current crisis has focused on the implications for large businesses and their hiring and investment decisions, or on households and their employment possibilities. One underemphasized aspect of the issue is the impact on small and medium-sized firms and the nature of the responses. Policy responses so far have tended to focus on ameliorating the immediate impacts, with less attention paid to preparing firms for the recovery period.

Location

Corvinus University
Main building, Auditorium III.
address: Fovam ter 8. Budapest  H-1093

Preliminary Programme:

10:00 Welcome:

· Dr. Thomas M. Cooney (Dublin Institute of technology and President of ESCB)

· Dr. Károly Balaton (Corvinus University of Budapest)

10:20 Plenary 1: 'Entrepreneurship and the business cycle: a way out of the Bust' Professor Roy Thurik (Erasmus University, Rotterdam)

11:10 Coffee break

11:30 Round Table: Policies for Entrepreneurship at the Time of Crisis (Moderator Professor David Smallbone, Kingston University)

Speakers:

· Mr Zoltán Mester (State Secretary for Economic Development, Ministry for National Development and Economy, Hungary)

· Dr Tom Cooney (Dublin Institute of Technology, Ireland)

· Mr Emmanouil Schizas, (ACCA, UK)

· Dr Charles Matthews (University of Cincinnati, USA)

This session will discuss the following questions: the effects of the crisis on the SME sector; the policy responses of government; evidence of the impact of the adequacy of the government responses.

13:00-14:00 Lunch

14:00 Plenary session: ‘Criteria for identifying good practice policies’, Professor Zoltan Roman

14:30 Round Table: Policies to Promote Entrepreneurship in Central and Eastern Europe: Identifying Good Practice (moderator Dr. Antal Szabó (Scientific director of ERENET, Hungary)

· Dr. Péter Szirmai (Corvinus University of Budapest, Hungary)

· Desislava Yordanova (Sofia University »St. Kliment Ohridski», Faculty of Economics and Business Administration)

· Darija Kristić (Center for of Osiek, Croatia)

· Dr Eric Dejan (Institute of Economic Sciences, Serbia)

· Dr. Zsuzsanna Szabó (Petru Maior University, Romania)

· Jerzy Cieślik (Leon Kozminski Academy of Entrepreneurship, Poland)
Dr. Marián Gál (Technical University of Kosice, Slovakia)

Each speaker will address the following: (i) The aim of their policy/programme; (ii) Main activities of their policy/programme; (iii) Results/outcomes; (iv) Good practice features (with rationale)

16:30 ESCB Policy Network Meeting

Participation at the Pre-Conference is free of charge, however, there are limited spaces.

Participants wishing to participate in the RENT XXIII Pre-Conference Policy Forum to be held Wednesday 18 November 2009 kindly requested to fill this Registration Table below and send to the ERENET Secretary Attila Petheo by E-mail: attila.petheo@uni-corvinus.hu or by Fax: (+361) 482-5408 as soon as possible, but no later that 30^th October 2009.

Registration Information

Surname

First Name

Organisation

E-mail

Phone

Address

For more information, please visit http://www.eiasm.org/frontoffice/event_announcement.asp?event_id=588

Detailed view of the Pre-conference

	Policy Forum
	18 November 09, Wednesday
9:00-10:00	Registration open
10:00-10:20	Welcome (Corvinus & Tom Cooney)
10:20-11:10	Opening Plenary (Roy Thurik)
11:10-11:30	Coffee break
11:30-13:00	Round Table 1
	Policies for Entrepreneurship at a Time of Economic Crises
13:00-14:00	Lunch
	AULA
14:00-14:30	II. Plenary (Zoltán Román)
14:30-16:15	Round Table 2
	Policies to Promote Entrepreneurship in Central and Eastern Europe Best Practices
16:15-16:30	Coffee break
16:30-17:10	ECSB Policy Network Meeting
18:30-20:30	RENT Conference Registration Open
	Main Building AULA
18:30-20:30	Welcome drink
	Main Building AULA