Euroalert.net spends one day with SMEs and entrepreneurs at the “Salón Mi Empresa 2012”

Last February 15 we had the opportunity to spend one day at the “Salón Mi Empresa”, My Business Exhibition, an event held in Madrid for the third consecutive year. The forum brought together experts, companies and public bodies aiming to bring solutions for the issues which most concern small businesses and entrepreneurs. As a company dedicated to develop commercial intelligence tools for SMEs based on public procurement and government contracts, knowing at first hand what these kind of businesses expect and which are their needs, is something Euroalert.net is particularly interested in.

At the exhibitors area delegates had access to solutions adapted to their businesses as well as to public institutions which can help them to launch their projects and make them grow, such as the Spanish Directorate General for SME Policy, the Spanish Institute for Foreign Trade (ICEX), the Spanish High Council of Chambers of Commerce, or Madrid Emprende Economic Development Agency, among other organizations and associations which provide help for businesses and entrepreneurs. Besides these contact points, “Salón Mi Empresa” also consisted of 6 conference rooms, where speakers from different backgrounds addressed topics such as financial aspects for entrepreneurs and small businesses, how social media can be used to increase small businesses' performance, aspects related to franchising or issues related to SMEs internationalisation process, a field where Euroalert.net is working intensively to provide quality services.

It was an intense work day which brought us an occasion to meet companies and organizations we already had the opportunity to collaborate with, as well as a good opportunity to meet new people and greet some old friends, like those from Gestiona Radio with whom Euroalert.net was happy to collaborate a couple of months ago in their programme “Esto es Europa”, This is Europe, and who were making their programme “Primera Hora”, First Hour, at the Salón Mi Empresa.

It was also quite a rewarding experience to see how, despite current difficulties, there are still people willing to start up businesses, sharing innovative ideas and with loads of optimism to move their projects forward. For all of them, Euroalert.net will keep on improving to offer the best available information services and commercial intelligence tools such as our public contracts winners lists or our tender alerts for contracts available in any EU country.

Taking notes at The Single Market Opportunity event

On January 24 we were lucky enough to attend The Single Market Opportunity event that Google organized in Brussels to discuss the opportunities that a single market presents and the barriers that still exist in the single European market. As you know, Euroalert aggregates public tenders published by the EU countries with the aim that the opportunities in public procurement of the single market can be better used by small and medium enterprises. Thus, it was very interesting to us to attend to all discussions held at the Google's event.

Of course, the discussion focused on the advances that have taken place in recent years due to the firm commitment of the European Commission for improving SMEs competitiveness through the opportunities of the Single Market. However, it was also extensively discussed the major barriers that still exist, from the tax system to heterogeneous linguistic diversity, for a European market in which nearly 500 million people live, (data from 1 January 2009) to become a reality.

It was very inspiring to see the experience of the small businesses that Google invited to the event, which share how they have taken advantage of the opportunities offered by Internet and the online marketing to internationalise their services and to access to a larger market. We are sure that it would be more and more companies using existing resources in technology and legislative developments to break down barriers and generate growth. Euroalert will keep working for helping to better enable European SMEs to improve their competitive intelligence in the Single Market with Euroalert's products such as, the Alerts on Government contracts in the European Union and the List of Government Contracts Winners in the EU.