Virtual delegation

The 14th India–Sweden Innovations’ Accelerator delegation was due to travel to India in May 2020, but had to find new ways to meet and interact due to Covid-19. The follow-up shows that the new ways of working were successful.

Two workshops

Two digital workshops were held on 14 and 20 May, where 11 Swedish companies introduced themselves to over 200 Indian companies from 16 industrial sectors through videos and online presentations. An interactive Q&A session with live feed allowed interested parties to ask further questions. The workshops resulted in more than 170 enquires from Indian companies.

The workshops were preceded by a targeted social media campaign across multiple platforms which enhanced the programme reach considerably.

B2B meetings

During May and June, around 90 individual online meetings between different companies took place, based on requirement of the Swedish companies as well as interest received from the workshops. The project management team coordinated closely to ensure relevant and high quality meetings. Focused and prequalified meetings with a dedicated coordinator for each Swedish company resulted in high quality leads and interest. These B2B meetings generated over 30 new collaboration opportunities.

Creating strong connections

Swedish companies managed to develop strong connections with a wide range of Indian companies during the virtual delegation, which was very well received by both Indian and Swedish parties.

“I highly appreciate the initiative taken to develop the ISIA programme. It is indeed an exemplary platform – more so in the current challenging times – to meet, interact and collaborate with relevant technology providers from Sweden and work towards effective partnerships,” says Jagadish M, Vice President and Head of Technology at Amara Raja Batteries.

A Antennas is a new member of the ISIA programme and now has opportunities for a pilot project and potential partnership.

“We must say that the ISIA people are extremely well connected in India and even the Covid-19 has not stopped the progress of the programme due to many and well organised webinars and meetings directly with selected companies,” says Mika Nylund, Vice President Sales at A Antennas.

Next: physical delegation

Although the digital meeting techniques have worked very well, there is an aim for a follow-up physical delegation in November 2020, subject to Covid-19 conditions and applicable travel restrictions.