The START project coordinator, Camarabelux (the Official Spanish Chamber of Commerce in Belgium and Luxembourg) convened the consortium for the official project launch meeting on March 29, 2022, in Brussels.

This was a great opportunity for partners to meet and learn more about each organisation’s expertise and roles within the consortium, in line with the project’s main objective of improving the internationalisation skills of SMEs in the retail sector.

The coordinator revisited the proposal with MEUS from Spain, ASSIST Software from Romania, the Polish Chamber of Commerce – KIG from Poland, and Lovila from Cyprus, providing an overview of the project and exploring the objectives, target groups, milestones, project results, and action plan.

Furthermore, the first steps in project implementation were established, with a focus on the first project result – the mobile report on the skills required by retail SMEs. The partners also discussed dissemination activities, such as identifying target groups and establishing dissemination tools and channels, at the meeting. The quality control plan and risk mitigation strategies were also reviewed to ensure a smooth project implementation. The coordinator concluded the meeting by presenting the Management Handbook, which summarizes the main project management guidelines and procedures, including project progress monitoring.