About Us: Our History
The IA Centre is the first to raise the profile of IA and IA Management to businesses - irrespective of their size, sector or maturity. As a public sector body, its principal aims are to generate additional business growth by supporting Scottish businesses to understand, recognise and exploit their Intellectual Assets..
Development of The IA Centre
The IA Centre was developed in response to attendees' requests after an IA Conference at Gleneagles in 2001. The 2001 Conference was developed by Targeting Technology Ltd and, despite being run under an entirely new brand and the difficulty of introducing a little-understood topic, the Conference was over-subscribed and follow-up events, 1-2-1 support and tools development were thereafter in constant demand.
This "market intelligence" was supported by initial studies into the unexploited value of IA in Scottish SMEs and a case was made to the Scottish Executive for an umbrella operation to manage IA support and awareness raising activities for the good of Scotland's businesses.
After consultation, the Scottish Executive confirmed assistance for an entirely new body to deliver Scotland-wide. The proposed unique service offering was developed in consultation with leading proponents in the field - both national and internationally - and built on the needs and demands of the Scottish business community as experienced by Targeting Technology Ltd.
Approval was given at the end of 2003 to locate premises, the Chairman of the time, Gordon McConnachie, was invited to join and help form the Board, whilst the go-ahead was given for recruitment in 2004, all leading to the IA Centre set up and staffing with informal launch in November 2004.
