15.00 Welcoming remarks: Chancellor of the University of Urbino, Stefano Pivato – Dean of the Faculty of Economics, Massimo Ciambotti – Governor  of the Marche Region, Gian Mario Spacca – President of the Pesaro-Urbino Chamber of Commerce, Alberto Drudi – President of CNA Marche, Renato Picciaiola.

Afternoon session

 15.15 – Chairperson, Robert Strom, Kauffman Foundation - Kansas City.

15.30 – Jonathan Potter, OECD, - Paris - Government SME and Entrepreneurship Policies after the Crisis.

16.00 – Giorgio Calcagnini, Ilario Favaretto, Rosalba Rombaldoni, Università di Urbino, Italian SMEs in the Aftermath of the Crisis: Is there a New Model?

16.30 – Coffee break

16.45 – Giuseppe Gramigna, Small Business Administration - Washington D.C. The Great Recession,Conventional and Non-conventional U.S. Federal Government Responses and Their Impact on U.S. Small Businesses.

17.15 – Salvatore Zecchini,  Istituto per la Promozione Industriale - Roma, OECD Countries’ Policy Approach to the SME Crisis in the Recent Recession.

17.45 – Session summary and discussion by Robert Strom.

Morning session

 9.30 – Chairperson, Geoffrey Hirt, DePaul University -Chicago.

9.45 –  Traci L. Mach, Federal Reserve Board - Washington D.C., Examining the Impact of Credit Access on Small Firm Survivability.

10.15 – Luciano Goffi,  UBI-BPA - Jesi, Towards a New Bank-firm Relationship After the Crisis. The Case of Local Banks.

10.45 – Coffee break

11.00 – Annalisa Ferrando, European Central Bank - Frankfurt, Access to Finance in the Euro Area: What Are SMEs Telling Us About the Crisis?

11.30 –  Marcello Pagnini, Banca d’Italia - Bologna, Banking Organization, Technology and Small Business Lending.

12.00 – Session summary and discussion by Geoffrey Hirt.

13.00 – Lunch

Afternoon session

 14.15 – Chairperson, Antonello Zanfei, Università di Urbino

 14.30 – Robert Strom, Kauffman Foundation - Kansas City,  Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Economic Recovery in the U.S.

15.00 – Donato Iacobucci Università Politecnica delle Marche - Ancona, How Business Groups Reacted to the Crisis. Evidence from Italian Small- and Medium-sized Groups.

15.30 – Coffee break

15.45 – Guido Rey, Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna - Pisa,   Enhancing the Networked Enterprise for SMEs: a Service Platform - oriented Industrial Policy.

16.15  – Marco Cucculelli, Università Politecnica delle Marche - Ancona, New Product Introduction and Corporate  Governance in Turbulent Times. Evidence from Longitudinal Data.

16.45 – Session summary and discussion by Antonello Zanfei, Università di Urbino.

17.00 – Conclusions by Sergio Silvestrini, CNA – Confederazione Nazionale Artigianato e della Piccola e Media Impresa.