The Society of Competitive Intelligence Professionals (SCIP) and SCIP Italia are partnering to bring you the 2008 European Competitive Intelligence Summit.

SCIP Italia is the local SCIP entity in Italy that serves the competitive intelligence (CI) community in its native language and develops educational programming to meet local needs. The Summit will be held from 20-22 October, 2008 at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, Rome, Italy.

The 2008 European Competitive Intelligence Summit will begin accepting proposals on 20th February and will close on 20th March 2008. Review of proposals will begin immediately- notifications will be sent via e-mail letters in early April. The Program Committee reserves the right to invite presenters of its own choice to the program.

All proposals must feature case studies and/or demonstrated best practices - year after year attendees want to hear about successes and lessons learned in CI practice. Proposals that provide case examples and professional tips for the audience will be given preference in the selection process.

The Program Committee is seeking proposals that feature the following topics:

CI and its relationships with different functions inside the company (e.g., CI and Sales, Planning & Strategy, Marketing, R&D, M&A, Finance, Legal, etc.)
• Organizational issues: executive buy-in; how to get a “seat at the table”
• Integration of CI into business planning and other processes
• How to install CI ambassadors in the executive branch
• CI function sponsorships and decision makers (challenge & opportunity)
• Intelligence synergies across group services: cost efficiency, economy of scale and negotiation power towards vendors
• Internal networking across multiple departments: impact case studies
• Securing the CI function – being an invaluable partner in the broader corporate intelligence and security network

CTI: Innovation and Intelligence
• Creating competitive edge with innovation (exploiting new niches, new companies, new solutions for old problems, new processes…) 
• Patent alert systems
• CTI impact on internal customers:   R&D, Marketing & Sales, Licensing, etc
• “Translating” technical issues of competitive importance for non-technical decision-makers
• Maintaining excellence in CTI skills, technical expertise and business relevance
• Recruiting for CTI:  Business people who understand technology? Or technology people who understand business?

CI performed by a single CI practitioner
• CI on a limited budget
• Small and Medium-sized companies’ ways for implementing CI
• Outsourcing options
• Resource sharing: internal and external
CI issues in new and emerging economies (Central and Eastern European countries and other non-European/non-US)
• EU perspective
• Pre-1989 economic situation and strategies for success (examples by industry, by company)
• Out-sourcing (by tier A countries/companies): threat or opportunity?

New analytical tools and e-platforms for the CI practitioner
• Problems not yet addressed by technology (with suggestions)
• Case studies and product comparisons
• Application of web 2.0 platforms for intelligence collection and analysis
• Novel CI software applications
• Web mining and data mining

In detail the speakers expertise can cover:

Regional changes in the competitive landscapes (opportunities in innovation-driven industries in the European economy)

Industry paradigm shifts and how individual companies are responding to remain competitive

- politically-based (e.g., changing competitiveness of East-European companies from 1989 to present)

- technology based (e.g. shift in manufacturing technology, new opportunities and threats regarding talent in the R&D community, education issues/changes)

- market-based (e.g., accessibility of new economies, investments, raw material supply connections etc.)

· Role of CI practitioners within R&D units in technology-based companies, which could include:

- case studies

- process, interlinking/colaboration with Marketing depts.

- outsourcing of CI activities by R&D, patent CI with threats and risks experience shared

· Other topics of interest

- R&D-based CTI development of clients in Marketing, M&A Licensing, etc .)

We are interested in Euro-based speakers for two reasons:

- Content: We would like to bring in the European perspective. This could be of interest not only to the European attendees, but also to US, Indian and other economies seeking to gain competitive advantage by bringing business to/drawing business from this continent.

- Economics: Travel reimbursement by SCIP will be limited.

If you are interested to submit your papers to the conference please conduct the survey.

Direct link to the SCIP: 2008 European Competitive Intelligence Summit web page.