The New Club of Paris is the agenda developer for the Knowledge Economy. The Club’s main objective is to create awareness on what the knowledge society is and will be, and also support nations, regions, cities, communities organizations and companies in their transformation into the Knowledge Economy.
The New Club of Paris was founded in 2006. It was emerging as a consequence of two major events:
1. The finalization of a report called RICARDIS (Reporting Intellectual Capital to Augment Research, Development and Innovation in SMEs – available via EU Webpages) by a high level experts group, appointed by the European Commission. The report recommended a number of steps to the Commission for stimulating companies in Europe and to apply Intellectual Capital Reporting (in German: “Wissensbilanz”) as a new method of knowledge leadership related to the so called Lisbon agenda. The RICARDIS group itself was initiated by among others by Professor Günter Koch in his role then as a member of the European Association of leading Research and Technology Organizations (EARTO).
2. A major annually ongoing conference under the auspices of the World Bank Institute in Paris, initiated by Professor Ahmed Bounfour on the focus of “Intellectual Capital of Nations, Regions and Communities”. This is also the title of a book initiated and compiled by Professor Ahmed Bounfour and Professor Leif Edvinsson.
The founding persons and initiators of the New Club of Paris then became Edvinsson, Bounfour and Koch. The first two are acting as Chairman and Vice Chairman with the latter acting as General Secretary. The Club as a set up is an international association under Austrian law with its seat in Vienna. The Board is now also supplemented with representatives from Japan (T. Sumita), South America (E. Rath-Fingerl) and Scandinavia (P. Stahle).
The “Credo” of the Club has been documented in its Manifesto, initially signed by some 30 prominent Founding Members. The Club’s membership is focused on “Intellectual Entrepreneurs”, knowledge scientists, opinion leaders in Knowledge Society / Economy and high level “knowledge politicians”. The Club prominently participates in knowledge raising events around the world, runs an annual seminar in Paris, coordinates and contributes to worldwide research efforts on the knowledge economy, that it publishes in papers and books, as well as on its emerging website www.new-club-of-paris.org
The New Club of Paris especially and with great success runs so called Round Table (RT) projects usually based on invitation by Governments or Cabinets. The purpose of RTs is to provide an analyzing dialogue and an agenda setting development process for a country, a region or a city to prepare the transformation towards a knowledge community. Thereby it initiates agenda developing projects clarifying and amplifying the global movement towards the Knowledge Society. Its work has an impact power of Knowledge Navigation leading to the refinement of national or regional Knowledge Policies.
The New Club of Paris cooperates with other important organizations and institutes such as the Club of Rome or the World Capital Institute. The Club has local emerging communities worldwide in different countries which are represented by so called “Ambassadors”, who act due to local needs and preferences.
