Yesterday, at the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Center Tehnopolis was held a Demo Day within the RISE project (Regional Incubator for Social Entrepreneurs), which completed the first phase of this project – the IDEATION phase.
At this unique event, eight Montenegrin teams presented their ideas in the field of social entrepreneurship and offered creative solutions to some of the leading social problems, on the development of which they worked with national and international mentors in the previous period.
The two best teams were ReUse Center, which won first place, and Happy Bed, which won second place, which led them to the second phase of the RISE project – the phase of regional INCUBATION.
First place team – Reuse
Second place team – Happy Bed
In addition to direct financial support, the winning teams will receive non-financial support in the next 6 months, along with ten other selected teams from the Western Balkans in the form of capacity-building activities and further development of key segments of their idea.
Aleksandar Janicic, the coordinator of the Center for Entrepreneurship Development and Project Management of IEC Tehnopolis, emphasized the importance of the RISE program for IEC Tehnopolis, the Montenegrin community and the community of the Western Balkans.
“We set out to strategically develop the concept of social entrepreneurship in a sustainable way – continuously and in the long run. Over four months, we managed to help the teams to develop their ideas and to instil in them some knowledge and skills that they will need in the coming period to develop their ideas sustainably regarding concretely recognized problems in our society. Janicic states that the program is especially important because of another additional value: “We managed to connect young people from the territory of the Western Balkans, to continue working on reconciling this area and to try to make even greater connections and interactions between those people.”
The winning team, ReUse Center, says they are more than happy with the opportunity given to them:
“We are very grateful for this award and for working with the mentors and Tehnopolis that preceded it. In the past few months, we have devised concrete steps for the further development of the idea of the ReUse center and now we have the most fun part ahead of us – their implementation! We are really looking forward to everything that follows and we already know that we have a great working year ahead of us.”
From the creation of the mobile application to the restoration of cultural and historical Montenegrin monuments, the ideas of the RISE teams were different.
The winning team of the ReUse center focuses on the principles of the circular economy and the desire to reduce waste and plans to open a sales and educational facility. Their center will be a place where it will be possible to donate the right items, exchange them for discounts, afford second-hand clothes, books, and home decor around the Sun, and educational events on the circular economy will be organized. As a second-hand shop and a platform for gathering and educating people from our region, they plan to organize clothing exchange actions, eco-documentary evenings and craft learning workshops and item repairs.
Happy Bed is the idea to produce dog beds from old tires, which are healthy for both the pet and the environment. Discarded tires, which no one recycles in Montenegro, are manually turned into durable and warm dog beds, which even the most naughty dogs will not be able to bite. This is the first locally made pet product made from 100% recycled materials.
The Fortress Bros team has a mission to preserve both cultural and historical monuments, as well as all-natural and historical, unjustly neglected, monuments of our country. Their team is composed of professional and licensed lovers of nature and extreme sports who want to through a unique combination of activities, commercial tours and environmental activism, starting with the Gorazde Fortress, begin the mission of cultivating these fortresses, so that all our citizens and foreign tourists, could get acquainted with the hitherto hidden heritage of our country.
MONTE MEDICAL – Health for All creates a two-way platform that will facilitate the availability of health care by connecting patients with health care institutions in Montenegro and abroad, which is especially important in the current pandemic. Patients will be able to connect with a doctor or clinic that will best respond to their health needs, and this will be particularly beneficial to vulnerable groups. Example: “I have a child with autism, where in Montenegro can he fix his teeth under total anesthesia?”. The platform is in principle free for patients and has the potential to be extended to other Western Balkan countries.
Wineroom is a platform that aims to provide wine lovers with a quick, easy and simple process of scheduling visits to wineries and wine events. With this platform, they want to contribute to the development of wine tourism in Montenegro and the region, by offering the offer of small wineries to all wine lovers in the world and make them more accessible and accessible and provide customers with a simple and functional solution that will simplify the process of scheduling a visit and with which with just a few clicks they can schedule a visit to the winery. and location suits their requirements and preferences.
Okusi prirodu is a mobile and web application that connects rural households, which naturally produce healthy food or offer accommodation services, with tourists and all those who are looking for such products and services with just a few clicks. They desire to use modern technologies to make the return of people to nature and a healthy environment easier, by making the products and services of rural farms easily accessible.
Montaste is a hedonistic culinary workshop, which offers tourists the opportunity to learn how to prepare a traditional Montenegrin dish in a natural environment and with spectacular views, with the help of experienced housewives. By organizing these workshops, they want to solve the problem of diverse tourist offers and encourage the development of gastro, experience, eco and rural tourism in Montenegro. Also, by using exclusively domestic products, they directly promote their promotion and sale and aim to raise the awareness of Montenegrin citizens when it comes to Montenegrin cuisine and maintaining its value, which is one of the unique symbols of our tradition.
Bastaonica is an ecological center, built on the foundations of the first garden community and the first school garden in Montenegro. Center for small environmental practices, where we learn how to be self-sustainable and environmentally aware citizens, who practice sustainable habits.
The five-member jury that decided on the best consisted of Mirela Rajkovic (SEEYN), Vanja Zoric Sundis (Innovation and Entrepreneurship Center Tehnopolis), Tarik Zaimovic (Bild studio), Batric Janjic (Hipotekarna bank), Ivana Jankovic (Ministry of Economic Development).
The RISE program is funded and coordinated by a consortium consisting of the Regional Office for Youth Cooperation (RYCO), GROUPE SOS Pulse, the South East Europe Youth Network (SEEYN), the Francais Institute and the Franco-German Youth Office (OFAJ). In addition to IPC Tehnopolis, the RISE program in the Western Balkans is implemented by ARNO (Northern Macedonia), Balkan Green Foundation (Kosovo), Nešto više (Bosnia and Herzegovina), Smart Kolektiv (Serbia) and Yunus Social Business (Albania).
You can also watch the RISE Demo day on our YouTube channel:
