International Council of Small Business Growing

Media Release: Palaver Media on behalf of ICSB

International Council of Small Business on a growth trajectory

As the main sessions of this conference officially drew to a close the new president of ICSB, Professor Tom Cooney of the Dublin Institute of Technology, revealed that this independent global network of individual members and affiliate organisations is experiencing a wave of growth in membership.

Within the next 12 months the latest national affiliates to join the ICSB’s ranks will include the powerhouses of India, China, Brazil, Mexico and Russia.

“Our big challenge next is about how we pull all our members together, how to build our profile and how to position the role of small business within the response to the global financial crisis. To do all this the ICSB has to see itself as a business or social enterprise in its own right", said Professor Cooney.

“While education and research has been the strength of the ICSB in the past, we will have to reach out more into new fields of entrepreneurship and practice in the future. And doing that will mean that we have to translate the wealth of knowledge we are collecting and gathering at events like this conference into a currency of more readily understood and potent pointers for the future of small business”.

More than 150 paper abstracts were orally presented at the ICSB’s event in Wellington across themes as diverse as the psychology of entrepreneurs and small business cooperation through to family businesses and new venture creation. This sheer volume of information, not to mention its complexity, was a clear indicator of the challenge identified by Professor Cooney.

Wellington hosted the World Conference of the ICSB from 10 to 13 June 2012. The event was immediately followed by a Public Agencies Forum on improving engagement between government bodies and the SME community, held in the Beehive theatrette on 14 June. For more information about the ICSB go to www.icsb.org

ENDS

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