Europe’s small and medium-sized enterprises, clusters and policymakers met in Dublin from 2 to 4 November 2026 at the SME & Clusters Assembly 2026, and we were there too. Éva Molnár of our member company Silver Tojás Kft. represented the iFood Cluster at the three-day event at the Convention Centre Dublin, held under the motto “Connecting for a Competitive Europe”.
Competitiveness, productivity, cluster policy, SME-friendly regulation and bringing innovation to market were at the heart of the programme. A recurring idea was that clusters work in two directions: they bring development opportunities to businesses and carry companies’ experience and needs back to policymakers. Speakers also discussed the planned European Competitiveness Fund and the place clusters could have in it.
The panel on SME-friendly policy making argued that rules should be designed with the smallest businesses in mind from the start, and that digitising existing bureaucracy does not in itself make things simpler. Figures presented in the session on productivity showed that smaller food companies reach roughly 60-65% of the productivity of large firms. On the final day, the discussion turned to managing cluster membership effectively, staying in regular contact with members, and the role of trust.
We thank Éva Molnár for representing us in Dublin and for sharing her insights in a detailed report.