2022 EBN TechCamp ‘Untapped Innovation Potential’ – Posted on October 26, 2022December 28, 2022 by Better Incubation The annual EBN Techcamp was held in Lipica (Slovenia) on the 19th and 20th of October. During these two days different activities took place within the framework of ‘Untapped Innovation Potential’. Laura Lecci CEO of EBN, Dorijan Maršič, EU|BIC Sežana Inkubator Director, David Škabar, Mayor of Sežana and Cristina Fanjul, EBN President and EU|BIC CEEI Asturias Director, were in charge of kicking off these days. During these 48h there was time to talk about innovation, impact, ecosystems, sustainable development goals, inclusion of innovative entrepreneurs, etc. and to reflect on this. SESSIONS Chapter 1: Why EU|BICs and other BSOs should consider promoting and supporting social and inclusive entrepreneurship in their regional ecosystems? Insights 1 | Keynote From Vision to Execution: Leading Impact Management: led by Tobias Temmen, Venture Partner (Kellogg-WHU, Stanford Change Labs). ““A change in purpose changes a system profoundly, even if every element and interconnection remain the same,” Tobias provides a practical perspective on how thinking in systems is critical when reconsidering our incubation models” Solution Session 2 | Deep Dive 1: The human imperative. From vertical to transversal approach to impact driven innovation): led by Ramy Boujawdeh, EU|BIC Berytech Chief Operating Officer with Krystel Khalil and EU|BIC Berytech Programs Director and Lara Elkhoury EU|BIC Berytech Deputy Programme Director. Expect to learn more about how technology, innovation, and society function in tandem, and how your organisation can re-strategize for the change happening around us. Solution Session 2 | Deep Dive 2: Tech For Good. An ecosystemic approach to impact-driven innovation: led by Francisco Pizarro Escribano, EU|BIC Fundecyt PCTEX Business Development Manager. FundecytPCTEX presented the regional ecosystem that has been set up to promote and support impact-driven entrepreneurship and social innovation in Extremadura. Introducing two concrete tools, Francisco Pizarro, will focus on the importance of identifying the right stakeholders and establishing a new service portfolio Chapter 2: What is needed for EU|BICs to enable change and enter the future of innovation support? Insights 2 | Keynote: The value(s) of the Sustainable Development Goals led by Prof. Dr. Andreja Jaklič, Chair of International Relations at University of Ljubljana Faculty of Social Sciences. Shared reflections on how the UN SDGs contribute to close societal and environmental challenges and bring value to local and regional ecosystems. By sharing good practices from the CEE region, she will demonstrate how the SDG framework contributes to value creation. Solution Session 3 | Deep Dive 1: Inclusive approaches to innovative entrepreneurship. Designing Inclusive Incubation Programmes led by Dorijan Maršič, EU|BIC Sežana Inkubator Dorector Ludovica Andrialemirovason, EU|BIC Laval Mayenne Technopole Project Manager and Desislava Dimitrova, EU|BIC INNOBRIDGE – Ruse CCI. Solution Sessions 3 | Deep Dive 2: “People-Planet-Profit” / “Society-Environment-Economy”. Incubation programmes boosting Double/Triple bottom line lead by Simone Ritzer, Wageningen Dialogues Program Leader at Wageningen University / Representing EU|BIC StartHub. A dynamic session hosted by Simone Ritzer let us explore ways to support impactful innovation, boosting the ‘triple bottom line’ among start-ups. Chapter 3: How to enable practitioners and what frameworks, programmes and financial instruments are available for BSOs and EU|BICs? Insights 3 | Keynote Communicating Impact: led by Flora Rosenow, Global Consultant Brand Strategy and Communication. As stated in the Better Incubation Roadmap “All incubators should communicate with the external ecosystem to promote their organisations and their end-users. The messages your incubator sends to other stakeholders should be consistent with your organisational culture and mission”. Solution Session 4 | Deep Dive 1: Social Value Proposition and IMM – More Than a Programme. A Strategy!, led by Martina Muggiri, EU|BIC Candidate SocialFare Startup Program Manager Matteo Lupetti, EU|BIC Candidate SocialFare Social Innovation Developer. Better understand the meaning of “social impact” and how it is embedded in their acceleration programmes. Looking at the case-study of “UnoBravo” they debated acceleration methods, and we will reflect on the role international networks like EBN can support the scaling of impact driven ventures. Solution Session 4 | Deep Dive 2: Social Value Proposition and IMM – Must-have for impact-driven ventures led by Selcen Kutku, acube | avanzi co-head and manager. They first discovered the investment strategy of the Croatian-Slovenian Social Impact Fund Feelsgood Capital. They then saw what role incubators can play bridging investees and investors for impact by listening to the methodology developed by a|cube, the incubator and accelerator of the Italian group Avanzi – Sostenibilità per Azioni. Solution Session 5 | Deep Dive 1: How can creative industries generate impact and address today’s societal challenges? led by Dr Eleanor Browne, Coventry University Social Enterprise CIC (CUSE) Managing Director Mariama Njie, Coventry University Social Enterprise CIC (CUSE) Social Enterprise Programme Manager. In an interactive workshop, CUSE shared insights on a fashion incubation programme recently run in Africa. Solution Session 5 | Deep Dive 2: Incubation services for Migrants and Refugees led by Maria Clarissa Pierobon, EU|BIC ITC Canarias Project Manager They saw with ITC Canarias how the Erasmus for Young Entrepreneurs programme can offer a concrete framework to support Ukrainian Refugees. During this session also Fela Kinse CEO of Salubata was presenting his business idea and sharing with the audience the difficulties he had to face as a Nigerian immigrant in France. Check Techcamp Pictures You can check here the photos and use them in social networks by naming Jan Antonac from VSS Sežana, and also de presentations from our speakers. And here is a short video with highlights from the event: https://betterincubation.eu/2021/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/EBN-Techcamp-2022.mp4 They speak about us https://inkubator.si/ebn-techcamp/ https://trentinosviluppo.it/it/ELE0016836/trentino-sviluppo-in-slovenia-al-techcamp-di-ebn https://us18.campaign-archive.com/?u=0537d5810fe70e3a2fcd44a39&id=9048527708 https://www.linkedin.com/posts/selcen-kutku-picozzi-14940230_its-been-two-wonderful-days-full-of-questioning-activity-6990387423146848256-kMoN/?trk=public_profile_like_view&originalSubdomain=it https://www.art-er.it/2022/10/ebn-tech-camp-art-er-partecipera-alledizione-2022-del-network-europeo-di-incubatori-e-acceleratori/ https://www.tepsa.eu/prof-dr-andreja-jaklic-opened-the-second-day-of-the-ebn-techcamp-2022-cir-slovenia/
Better Incubation | Toolkit Posted on October 12, 2022 by Better Incubation About this Toolkit This Toolkit is a comprehensive collection of handson tools and methodologies for business support organisations aiming to make their incubation and other business support programmes more inclusive and accessible. The Toolkit is based on the experience and exchange among members of the Communities of Practice of the Better Incubation initiative. It invites managers and contributors to incubation and other business support services to an honest analysis of their practices and gives them tools to go beyond the usual suspects as participants in their programmes. Being based on the experiences of the inclusive pilot programmes run within the Better Incubation framework, it is not an exhaustive list but offers itself as a starting point for all business support organisations to go beyond the status quo, i.e., mainstream entrepreneurship. This pilot has been running in many European countries: Spain, Portugal, United Kindom, France, Luxemburg, Belgium, The Netherlands, Germany, Austria, Slovenia, Italt, Hungary, Bulgaria, Greece and Turkey. How to use the Toolkit The Toolkit is organised in line with the common steps of designing and running a business support programme. You can easily navigate these different steps below and jump directly to where you are at, or you can read from beginning to end to get a better grasp of the many facets and perspectives when it comes to inclusion and accessibility in incubation and business support. For each step, different tools are listed and you can pick out what best fits your reality. Speaking of the steps of designing and implementing a business support programme: one important suggestion this Toolkit makes is to add step 2: Removing barriers to processes of developing and running business support programmes. Transforming your spaces and offerings to be more inclusive is not a one-time moment. It needs to happen throughout the programme cycle. However, having accessibility as a step just like “designing the programme” or “selecting participants” highlights the importance of gaining awareness about barriers that people may face in accessing programmes. This approach resonates with a wider mission of the Better Incubation project of placing incubators as catalysts in the entrepreneurship ecosystems and thus allowing them to go beyond their intermediary role. The 5 Groups in Focus Woman The European business and entrepreneurship ecosystem is far from being diverse and inclusive. According to the OECD report , women were half as likely as men to be self-employed , while the share of women who started their own business only increased by 2%. This gap can be explained by deep structural imbalances against female business founders, such as lack of access to finance, low opportunity perception regarding entrepreneurship among women, lack of role models or competing demands on time, with a double burden on home and work responsibilities for women. Migrants and Refugees In 2020, the number of refugees and asylum seekers in Europe increased to an unprecedented 23 million . Entrepreneurship therefore represents a great opportunity for refugees and other migrants to rebuild their lives and contribute to the economy and society in their new home country. Relevant business support services can help address these challenges, but it needs to be accompanied by a change of mindset in the sector to better reflect on the real needs of migrant entrepreneurs. Youth Youth unemployment represents one of the major social and economic challenges in Europe, with more than 16.5% of them being unemployed in 2018 . In response to the challenges the youth encounters when searching for jobs, entrepreneurship offers an alternative pathway to economic self-sufficiency. Critical success conditions can be provided by training and incubation programmes targeted at the youth to nurture their entrepreneurial attitudes and skills. Seniors With the ongoing demographic change and the ageing population in Europe, supporting entrepreneurial skills and becoming self-employed could be considered as innovative ways for middle-aged group workers to continue their professional activity . These include difficulties with mastering digital skills, health issues or social isolation. These demographic changes also affect business incubation support services because a new growing client group is emerging. People with disabilities The complexity of this group stems from the fact that disabilities are extremely diverse and are not fixed characteristic of individuals . People with disabilities face many barriers in the labour market, and employer discrimination is frequently reported. Tools for… Desinging inclusive support programmes Empathy interviews Co-creation with organisations in the field Personas Flexible modular design Removing barriers Analyse application data Web Content Accessibility Guidelines Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Training Scouting for and selecting diverse participants Community Mapping Channels Mapping Equity-informed selection Delivering the right programme support Needs assessement Business model basics Safer space Onion principle and confidence building Connecting participans to supportive people Intentional mentor matching Purposeful hosting Peer-to-peer support Facilitating access to capital Map funding possibilities Pitch training Offer funding Manageing impact Impact mesurement platform Exit interviews with participants Competence framework You can find more informaton HERE