Young people, positive energy, new ideas, development and improvement, networking and cooperation, as well as new friendships marked the Regional camp for young entrepreneurs that took place at Vucje from 18. to 21. October at Vucje in Niksic.
Innovation and entrepreneurship center Tehnopolis, in cooperation with partners technology park Intera from Mostar, Deli from Nis, science-technology park Cacak and science-technology park from Montenegro, organized the second regional Camp. The Camp gathered 44 participants of which 24 students from Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Montenegro.
Intensive lectures and workshops were very useful to future entrepreneurs and motivated them to start working on starting their own business during the four days. This was the primary goal of the Camp. Besides that, the networking of students, institutions and individuals proved to be very beneficial for everyone and it will serve all participants and make them business partners shortly.
18.10.
The executive director of the science-technology park from Montenegro, Velibor Boskovic, started the first lecture at the Camp. He gave some examples from his career, and also gave a motivational speech and therefore encouraged the students not to give up on their goals.He also said they can achieve anything if they really loved their job and constantly worked on their ideas. Velibor advised them to share their ideas with the people who might be helpful because that is the beginning of the development and a sign that they are mature enough to work on those ideas. Some of the qualities an entrepreneur must possess are critical thinking, creativity, determinence, stubborn persistence, and constant work.
After that, Vedran Simunovic spoke about how to recognize a good business idea. He motivated the students to realize their ideas and said that to make the business they need to start and work hard to make ideas a reality. Vedran gave examples of good practice and concluded that working hard brings us to great results.
Djordije Brkuljan, the manager for program activities and development of entrepreneurship presented the beginning of IEC Tehnopolis, what is its role in the entrepreneurial ecosystem and how can it help in developing ideas. He said students should find help in Tehnopolis and any other relevant institutions because that is the way to be closer to achieving goals.
At the end of the first day, Bojana Perovic, a Tehnopolis tenant and founder of the agency Minuta consulting, spoke about her personal experience in developing an idea, the path from being a freelancer to becoming an entrepreneur and gave some really good advice that future entrepreneurs could use in their own business. Bojana spoke about the most common mistakes freelancers make, what they need to get a job at the UpWork platform. At the end of the lecture, Bojana recommended some useful tools and sites that might be helpful and make everyday functioning easier.
19.10.
The second day of the Camp started with the workshops about making business plans and working on specific ideas. Vanja Zoric Sundic, the assistant of the executive director and financial manager in IEC Tehnopolis explained to the students what is necessary for a good business plan, what is the SWOT analysis, what are the elements of a business plan and what a financial analysis must be consisted of. After all that, they used this knowledge and implemented it on their ideas.
The students were divided into 6 groups, and after the work, they presented it to Vanja. Antonije Pusic attended the workshop as well. He was interested in the ideas of the students. Both of them gave some advice which the students might use to improve their ideas.
During the lecture of Ratko Batakovic, the executive director in IEC Tehnopolis, the students had the chance to hear something more about marketing and its significance in the development. To enter the market, the students must know the whole context they want to develop their ideas in to approach the target groups.
At the end of the second day, Antonije Pusic gave a lecture about his idea to make a solar sailing boat that is 40 years old, how he financed that idea and mistakes he made in the process. He made his life dream come true being persistent and now hw+e wants to engage in many projects. Antonije inspired everyone to believe that they can achieve every goal but they need to love what they do because that is the only way. The students asked questions about the boat, about making a brand, communication, and media.
20.10.
The third day of the Camp started with the lecture about how to finance an idea. Ana Simonovic spoke about grants and idea financing through projects and spoke about the donors from the private sector. She explained the basic elements of every project and how to recognize the opportunity to use the funds.
After that, Nenad Stojanovic and Milan Babic from Deli (creative working space) spoke about crowdfunding and their experience in making such campaign that is getting more popular as an alternative way of idea financing. The whole process of creating and implementing the campaign was very inspiring to the students, so they asked questions and looked for some advice from the lecturers. Nenad I Milan emphasized that they learned something new from the young, new generations, full of ideas and inspiration to create.
Mirsad Hadzalic spoke about his path to investment, what the business angels are, what a start-up ecosystem of a country represents and how much time it takes to form one. Montenegro is in the phase of activation because there are no enough start-ups, but to develop, it is necessary to work on the ecosystem strengthening. The timing is the key factor in getting an investment.
It is necessary to learn and explore the types of investments that might be helpful. Nebojsa Krsmanovic presented the credit lines of Alter Modus that start-ups can use at the beginning of their business development. He explained why micro-crediting is important for development. Some administrative benefits will be applied soon to provide an easier and simpler credit application for the users.
Darko Ivanovic spoke about what a pitch is, how to prepare for the presentation in front of the investors and what a presentation must contain. He explained how the presentation should look like at the Camp.
The last lecture on the third day was very interactive because Uhura Solutions spoke about their idea, how to deal with financing problems, how to find an investor. Their path to success was not easy and they had to go through many ups and downs, failures and give-ups and wait patiently for an ideal opportunity and investor who invested money in their development. They were very persistent in their intention to succeed and now they are proud of that success. After that, they presented the system of artificial intelligence that their start-up uses to solve the problem of reading documents in a way that a human can understand, and then they answered the questions of the students.
21.10.
On the last day of the Camp, the students pitched their ideas developed in groups. Six different groups and ideas, teamwork and connecting, are the proof that we gathered very creative young people, future entrepreneurs who eagerly worked on their ideas and learned how to avoid mistakes.
The first group called „Smart Start” presented the platform for connecting the students with psychologists to solve the problems they have.
“Follower” was the name of the second group that had an idea about smart suitcases. Because a great number of people had a problem with lost luggage at least once, this group came up with a suitcase that would be connected with an application on the cell phone so the owner of the suitcase could know its location at any time.
The third group was “Doggy land” which came up with a dog center, which would have all services in one place. It would include medical treatment, rehabilitation, care, recreation place.
“24h Pharm” was the name of the fourth group that developed the idea about the drug machines, where you could buy drugs you don’t need a prescription for.
The fifth group called „The spare wheel” came up with starting a small business of servicing bikes. Scooters, electric bikes, and electric scooters.
The last group called „Launch yourself” presented a platform for people who give digital services and employers who need those kinds of profiles.
The team that won was “24 pharm”, and they had the best idea and the plan for its development.
The general sponsor of the Camp was Coca-Cola HBC Podgorica that directly supported this event.
