The EBN Congress is the annual gathering of professionals in the innovation and entrepreneurship sphere. In 2017, the Congress will be jointly organised by EBN (the European Business and Innovation Centre Network), our certified EU|BIC in the region – Val d’Oise Technopole, Retis (the French innovation network), and Agoranov (a startup incubator in Paris). It will take place between 5-7 July in Enghien-les-Bains, in the Île-de-France, near Paris.

This congress will host participants from not just all over Europe, but also South Africa, China, Russian Federation, India, Canada, United States, Brazil, Taiwan...

The 2017 EBN Congress is structured around the idea of "OPENNESS"

• "OPEN INNOVATION | OPEN ECOSYSTEMS | OPEN ENTREPRENEURSHIP | OPEN STARTUP"

EU|BICs are important actors, those entrusted to work in direct contact with the entrepreneurs and SMEs, to ensure that innovative ideas are generated and that innovative products and services are marketed. They do so by ensuring a seamless delivery of the ‘incubation service value chain’ that typically is aimed at stimulating the territory, pre-incubating new ideas, incubating potentially successful startups and growing scalable businesses.

From the perspective of the entrepreneurs the same value chain can be read as: STIMULATE your brain, STAND UP your idea, START UP a new business, and SCALE UP for real impact.

The EBN Congress in Enghien-les-Bains will focus on these developments and the crucial role EU|BICs have in the creation of jobs and wealth. Over three days, the most innovative, most disruptive and most original practices will be presented, contributing to the evolution of our methods. EU|BICs alone will not be able to achieve their mission if all the actors around them – the innovation ecosystem – are not well-oriented and organised towards this common mission, and they can fall short at any given point of the value chain if conditions are not met.