Over the past two years, Alba Associates have successfully organised a number of sector-specific 'collaborative' networking events in the North West of England; events where the emphasis is on helping businesses identify potential areas of collaboration with each other, rather than simply trying to sell to each other.

The 'Calls for Collaboration' scheme attempts to encourage businesses to identify a possible need or wish to collaborate with other digital, creative and ICT businesses. Contact Alba Associates if you...

• need to address current skills or resourcing gap (outsourcing or seeking freelance support),
• have identified possible areas of collaboration with others business to meet a client's needs (e.g. technical requirements beyond the in-house expertise) or
• desire to work with partners whose clients work within a particular sector (looking for businesses in the hospitality, advanced manufacturing or retail, for example).

This free service enables you to look at the potential partner's business profile or website, or view examples of their work, in advance of a facilitated introduction at a Wired City Reconnected event - with the advantage of avoiding the 'hard sell' on the night.

We can help you to achieve this - by posting calls for collaboration. You simply provide us with a paragraph outlining your requirements, and we forward on [anonymously] to potential partners. Their responses will be compiled and collated by Alba Associates, and forwarded on to you, prior to the event.

Once you have the materials you will have three options:

• Simply follow up by contacting the interested parties directly
• You could request Alba Associates request more specific information
• You could request to meet the interested business at a future Lincs Wired City Reconnected event. This will be an opportunity to informally meet, and chat over a glass of beer/juice, to share your common interests.

Any information gathered in this exercise will not be used or shared, without your prior knowledge and consent, with other businesses outside Alba Associates/Wired City Reconnected.