European firm owners and managers develop a program for stimulating the economy

Unique economy promotion program plans on creating 2 million jobs. A private economic initiative wants to help up to 100.000 European companies expand their business. The aixvox GmbH joins in!

Usually, you expect economy promotion programs from the government – not anymore. A group of nearly 300 independent executives, firm owners and social media consultants have joined forces to help small and medium-sized enterprises from all over Europe. For this purpose they established the initiative “Digital Sunrise Europe” in which Detlev Artelt – CEO and senior consultant of the aixvox GmbH – participates, too. On the basis of extensive market research the newly formed group develops an “alternative growth strategy” which is supposed to help European firms cope with economic challenges.

The project was initiated by Axel Schultze, Social Media expert and CEO of Society3. At the “Digital Agenda Assembly” conference in june 2012 he was appointed with the task to give a basic presentation before the European Commission. In preparing the lecture he and his team of over 100 Social Media experienced volunteers tried detecting the status quo of social media in Europe and its potential to create additional employment. The results turned out to be a big surprise for the entire council. ”What we found was an astonishing paradigm – most European companies produce outstanding high-quality products with unique designs, yet they merely attend to their regional market. Despite the overseas competition, most corporations don’t know how to successfully compete in foreign markets”, said William Stewart, one of the founder members of “Digital Sunrise Europe” and start-up entrepreneur from the UK.

Instead of presenting a status report of Social Media in Europe, Axel Schultze thus developed a strategy model which effectively applies Social Media and in doing so allows for companies to grow in the whole of Europe. The objective target of the initiative is to support ca. 100.000 of the companies registered in Europe and to consequently create 2 million new jobs by 2016. Main focus of attention will be on training, strategy- development materials and informational events, which – up to a certain extent – are to be offered at no charge. Those services will be performed by ca. 1000 professional Social Media corporate consultants over the next four years. The majority of the funding results will come from technology and communication firms that aim to attain their market entrance into the European small firm sector. This in turn allows for other companies to achieve expansion in Europe with very little or virtually no investment. Another charter member of the group, Berrie Pelser, resports on the project’s first achievements: “We were all supremely excited and began spreading the word about our project on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and other Social Media platforms. The reactions were overwhelming. Within the space of a few weeks we found 1000 people who supported the idea and shared all the news about our project with colleagues and friends.”

Corporations that want to be inspired by the Digital Sunrise Team can register on the website and will gain access to a variety of information, strategy models and informational events.

For more detailed information please refer to http://DigitalSunrise.eu.