European SME Week 2010 - 25 May to 1 June

Mar 04, 2010

European SME Week 2010 will take place between 25th May and 1st June. 'Business Workout' is the theme for this year's SME week and it is all about ‘getting fit for the market'.

The formal opening events will be held in Brussels on 25th May and the closing event (together with the European Enterprise Awards ceremony) will take place on 31st May and 1st June in the Palacio des Congresos in Madrid.

This year's SME Week objectives remain the same as for last year:

(1) Inform existing entrepreneurs about the support available to them at European, national, regional and local level.
(2) Promote entrepreneurship and encourage more people to become entrepreneurs.

New Website

The European Commission has launched a new website this year. This is where you can let everyone know what events are going on during SME Week. The website has some new and exciting features which will make it more interactive, functional, and easier to keep up to date.

Registering Events

Event registration will open online on 1st February and continue until 25th May. No further events may be registered after that date.

Enterprise events are being allowed to take place throughout the whole of May and June.

The entire event registration process will be done online this year, making it easier for data validation, making amending registered events and checking event submission status. There will also be an automatic notification system to inform organiser's when their event has been approved and extra functionalities such as a place to put organiser's logos on the event website.

What happened during SME Week 2009?

Last year's SME Week was a great success, the UK registering 121 events ranking them third overall out of the 35 countries taking part. There were a whole variety of events from workshops and seminars to fairs and networking events. The top three types of event were: seminars, workshops and networking events.

Every English Region together with Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland ran at least one European SME Week event - so, thank you to all those involved in making the UK contribution to European SME Week such a success. The regions that embraced the Week most strongly were: North West (49 events); Yorkshire & Humberside (22 events) and the East Midlands (17 events).