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BEST
Academics
and
Companies
Forum
Ti
misoara 2013
Bringing Education
and
Entrepreneurship
under students’ scope14-20 July 2013
Timisoara, Romania
PRO VIP
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Academics
and
Companies
Forum
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2013
Table of contentsIntroduction 3
People involved 4
Facilitators 4
Experts 5
Participants 6
Partners 7
PROVIP 7
Timisoara Startup Hub 8
Schedule 9
Virtual Internships 10
Introduction to internships 10
Introduction to Virtual Internships 12
Interaction between stakeholders 14
Evaluation of PROVIP platform 18
Virtual Internships vs Entrepreneurship 19
Entrepreneurship 21
Introduction to Entrepreneurship 21
Business model 21
Startup rally 24
Summary 25
Thanks 26
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IntroductionThe Educational Committee of BEST (Board of European Students of Technol-ogy), together with Local BEST Group Timisoara, gathered 16 motivated Euro-pean students from several countries willing to participate in the event “Bring-ing Education and Entrepreneurship under Students’ Scope”. From the 14th to the 20th of July, several discussions about Virtual Internships and Entrepre-neurship leaded by experts and BEST facilitators took place in Timisoara.
The current development of virtual communication channels gave rise to new opportunities for European students to improve their technical knowledge as interns of a multinational company. In this context, Universities play an im-portant role in the communication between students and companies. PROVIP (Promoting Virtual Placements), a project financed by the European Union Life-long Learning Programme, strives improve the communication between in-volved parties and promote this new concept of work placements.
During this event, BEST facilitators team aimed to obtain students’ opinion on several topics related with Virtual Internships, more concretely with the inter-action between each stakeholder and the communication platform.
These days, entrepreneurship is a hot topic worldwide. The lack of job op-portunities and the increased access to new technologies, which allow people to create their own business are just two examples for why Entrepreneurship might be the key to open many doors for future professionals.
Having Timisoara Startup Hub present in the event enabled participants to have a bigger overview of what it takes to be an entrepreneur, as well to get more familiar with some tools which allow to put ideas into a business model.
In this report, all the details of “Bringing Education and Entrepreneurship under Students’ Scope” can be found. From the schedule of the event and people involved, to the most concrete outcomes of the several discussions related with Virtual Internships and Entrepreneurship.
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People involvedFacilitators
Natalia Mazur - Trondheim, Norway
João Pacheco - Porto, Portugal
Ioannis Mentekidis - Thessaloniki, Greece
Çagrı Basaran - Istanbul, Turkey
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Experts
Radu TiciuTimisoara Software Business Incubator
Vlad IsacTimisoara Startup Hub
Radu MarinescuTimisoara University
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Participants
Andrzej Michalski - Gdansk, Poland
Attila Katona - Budapest, Hungary
Daniela Friedl - Graz, Austria
Florent Pelletingeas - Paris, France
Liudmila Lyapine - Ekaterineburg, Russia
Maren Hulbak - Trondheim, Norway
Maurizio Billi - Turin, Italy
Miao Sun - Porto, Portugal
Mykyta Olimpiev - Kiev, Ukraine
Olga Vrousgou - Thessaloniki, Greece’
Oscar Alegre Sese - Barcelona, Spain
Réka Mihály - Budapest, Hungary
Sniedze Ozola - Riga, Latvia
Stella Postlethwaite - Graz, Austria
Timi Ojo Rus - Madrid, Spain
Victor Manuel Martin Barrios - Barcelona, Spain
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PartnersPROVIPPROVIP (Promoting Virtual Mobility in Placements) started in autumn 2012 and will last for two years. Over 10 European companies, universities and organisations are actively involved in developing this project. PROVIP is sup-ported by the European Commission under the Lifelong Learning Programme and is a follow-up to EU-VIP (Enterprise - University Virtual Placements) It aims to promote the outcomes of the previous project with companies as a main target group. Basing themselves on the earlier outcomes they want to develop a virtual platform that would enhance and facilitate communication between the three stakeholders. During EU-VIP, several pilot projects were launched that helped to develop guidelines. However, during those internships several problems occurred that PROVIP aims to solve with the help of this platform. Many of the issues were connected to the social aspects and communication troubles during the placement. Also, placements varied a lot execution wise, leaving some stakeholders disappointed with the outcomes or methods and tools used during the placement.
The pilot project will be launched this Autumn 2013 and this symposium is or-ganised in order to provide students’ input on the topic of virtual internships.
Visit: provip.info
PRO VIP
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Timisoara Software Business
IncubatorTimisoara Software Business Incubator provides support to start-up busi-nesses and young entrepreneurs by assisting them in their development and networking. This is done by providing amongst others office space and equip-ment, training sessions, consultancy and promotion on events.
Visit: www.it-incubator.biz
Other companies and startups that were involved in the project are:
Timisoara Startup HubProvides offices and working space for start-ups and teams on the very beggining of their carrer. Moreover, they are organising many events where young entrepreneurs can present their ideas or gain knowledge and contacts in the business world.
Visit: www.startuphub.ro
123-contact formCompany provides quality, cost-effective forms and surveys for web and mobile devices. Their vision is to incorporate a web form on every website, while their core values are attention to detail, ease of use, quality customer support and team synergy.
Visit: www.123contactform.com
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Simply socialSimply social helps other compa-nies to create and manage their social media programs. They help the companies to promote themselves and tell their stories via various social media (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.)
Visit: www.gosimplysocial.com
2oThis company specialises in building quality so-cial and casual games.
Visit: www.2o.com
e-spres-ohIt is a software company that developes programs and pla-forms closely connected to education and its develop-ment.
Visit: www.e-spres-oh.com
MovidiusMovidus produces chipsets for multicore, low-power devices that are used for image pro-cessing. It was established in 2005 in USA and currently has it offices in Romania, Ireland and USA.
Visit: www.movidius.com/about-movidius
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Unified Post
Unified Post is a company that specalises in online folw of in-voices and other docummentation. A platform that they have creaded, gives other companies all the tools they need to quickly and securely exchange documents with others.
Visit: www.unifiedpost.ro
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ScheduleTime Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday7:30 Wake up! Wake up! Wake up! Wake up! Wake up!8:00 Breakfast Breakfast Breakfast Breakfast Breakfast8:30 Moving to the uni Moving to the uni Moving to the uni Moving to the uni Moving to the uni9:00
Opening sessionIntroduction toVirtual Mobility
Evaluation of theplatform
Entrepreneurialecosystems Free time
9:30
10:00 Break
Expectations10:30 Break Break
Start-up rally
ExamInteractionbetween
stakeholders
Intro toEntrepreneurship
11:00Break
11:30
Public speaking12:00 Break
Break Break
Exam
12:30Interactionexercise Entrepreneurship
213:00
Lunch
13:30
LunchLunch
14:00
Lunch
14:30
15:00
Introduction tointernships
15:30
Linking session
Evaluation16:00
Creativity andinnovation
Announcement ofexam
Free
16:30 Summary of theday
Summary of theday
Free Free
Break17:00
Closing Session17:30 Summary of the
day
Free18:00
Free18:30
19:00Dinner Dinner Dinner Dinner Dinner
19:30
Event Schedule
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Virtual InternshipsIntroduction to internshipsFor this session we had two goals: to obtain information on students’ back-ground regarding internships as well as familiarize them with the concept. Through that we wanted to ensure that all participants possess the same knowledge. The short introductory discussion showed that few students had participated in internships, and most of their experiences were not positive. Moreover, the concept of virtual internships was completely unknown. Rea-sons someone would like to participate in an internship, and how a student interested in getting an internship would go about finding one were discussed.
Students fell that the most important reasons of getting an internship are ex-perience (both in their study field and in the business world), networking and the possibility that the internship leads to a job later on. The reasons for com-panies to get interns to work for them, on the other hand, are the fact that the company can search for new talent and come in contact with new working methods and free ideas, and at the same time there might be financial motiva-tion from the state to do so. Finally, the fact that a company gets a short term cheap (or even free) employee was considered important.
We asked students to let us know how internships work in their countries and whether students must search for a placement alone or if the university pro-vides it.The approach to find internships varied a lot between universities, but students seemed to prefer finding the internship by themselves, as they felt that this way it is easier to get what they want, and at the same time you get more involved from the beginning. In addition, support from the university was considered important, and the importance of career days was highlighted.
Previous discussion showed that the most common ways to find an intern-ship was either do it on your own or be provided by university. Taking this as starting point, participants were split in two groups and given the task to list advantages and disadvantages of both aspects. Results are summarized in tables 1 and 2.
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Table 1: Advantages and disadvantages of getting an internship via univer sity
Advanatages Disadvantages• Requires less paperwork• It fits better to your studies• It’s more stable, you have more
support• You can come in contact with
companies easier• The process is faster• You might get a scholarship for it• It’s easier to get an international
internship
• You have fewer choices• There’s the pressure and stress of
your university• It might be required you work for
free• It might be boring
Table 2: Advantages and disadvantages of getting an internship on your own
Advanatages Disadvantages• Show the company initiative and
motivation, valuable characteris-tics for an employee
• You improve your searching skills• You can get exactly what you want• You improve your communication
skills• Working with local companies
gives you an overview of the job market
• It’s harder to find, to organize your possibilities and make the first contact
• The quality is uncertain• It might not be recognized with
the university as part of your studies
• The company might take advan-tage of you
Further, skills gained during internships were discussed. The ones that showed greatest value for students were: communication skills, work experience, net-working, self-organization, time management and responsibility, certain hard-skills related to the placement, cooperation and teamwork, experience in work culture and work ethics, and finally the ability to work under pressure. At the same time, students felt like many desired skills were not gained through an internship, such as leadership skills, career advancement, the opportunity to make mistakes, decision making, responsibility for the company, and it was mentioned that some internships might be limiting intern’s creativity.
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Introduction to Virtual InternshipsThe goal of this session was to gain student’s input on how they imagine an ideal virtual internship. The imaginary internship was split into sections and each section was evaluated in further detail.
Section 1: Duration and workload
Duration of a virtual internship is dependent on several factors. The most im-portant variables pointed out by students were the difficulty of the task and whether the student is during that time having some subjects on his University or not. Also, the duration of the project that the student is working on in the company should be taken into consideration. Nevertheless, students shared the opinion that independently on the above mentioned, virtual internships should be from 6 to 12 months.
Another important aspect was deadlines within the project and having the abil-ity to manage them and have a clear overview at all times. A good computer platform that is easy to use was seen as a key factor to make it happen. Also a weekly report to monitor workload and progress or a presentation to the team in order to bring coworkers closer together and all updated was proposed. In order to keep university involved and updated a monthly report should be writ-ten by the intern.
Students saw flexible working hours are a huge advantage. In case the intern-ship was to be combined with full time studies not more that 2h a day should be expected from the intern. It was pointed out that most of the work would be done during the weekend due to other obligations. If the internship is a full time job, regular working hours should be applied. In both cases necessary adjustments according to the time zones should be made to avoid any misun-derstandings.
Section 2: Communication
Communication during the internship focused on three main points, university involvement, relation between company and intern and the tools used to facili-tate it.
According to students, university should be involved throughout the whole life-time of the internship. It should promote virtual internships to its students and then follow-up on milestones. They should monitor the progress and next to the company, ensure success of the project. The overall involvement would be
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limited, as company is mostly responsible for the project however fixed meet-ings or reports should be filed. In case of difficult tasks an ongoing commu-nication should be held to be able to guide the intern and solve emergencies.
Communication between student and the company should focus on the vari-ous tasks and problems the student has to solve and also consist of mutual feedback regarding the project and communication. To ease this process a platform that combines various tools would be needed, where students could upload outcomes of their work and also keep an overview over upcoming tasks. Other tools like email or Skype are necessary to have more personal communication and faster feedback.
Section 3: Promotion and information
Further promotion of the virtual internships as well as the information students find necessary in order to apply for a job were handled.
Proposed communication channels were: social media, university’s website, job fairs, posters, internal events at the university, such as conferences, faculty meetings etc. Professors should be also actively involved in promoting intern-ship offers and more personal approach like a targeted mail was seen as an effective tool. However not only university should take initiative in initiating the internships. Companies should also promote their job offers and they could potentially involve student organizations to organize promotion events to en-hance the impact.
Since most of the students aren’t familiar with the concept of virtual intern-ships all job offers should contain a short definition of such internships as well as list of differences and advantages over regular internships. In addition to basic information, such as duration, task, workload, future possibilities, suc-cess stories from previous interns should be shared.
Section 4: Tasks
Lastly students focused on task assignment and evaluation. It was proposed that tasks should be assigned after an interview and short test period. Also, the intern should be able to choose a task from a list of available tasks and the most suitable one should be assigned via trial and error process with continu-ous feedback and adjustments. Moreover, the task should be part of some bigger project to give the intern a chance to contribute to company’s develop-ment. Then outcomes should be presented on online group meetings via short presentation to keep an overview of the project and keep
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Interaction between stakeholders
everybody involved updated on the progress. Final evaluation should be done by mentor and intern together.
Various tools should be discussed beforehand and the favorite one chosen. Interns should also have the ability to evaluate other interns’ work however this should be done anonymously to avoid any conflicts.
To finalize the session, participants stated the advantages and disadvantages of Virtual Internships.
Table 3: Advantages and disadvantages of Virtual Internships
Advanatages Disadvantages• mobility• flexibility (special conditions)• different countreis, different econi-
mies• access to university resources• no extra costs for intern• autonomy• company saves resources• avoid possible conflicts• enhanced creativity by choosing
preferred work space• empowered diversity for company• more place are available and more
students can apply
• self organisation• lack of physical access (intranett,
equipment)• lack of social interaction• different time zones• limited subjects• communication problems and
misunderstandings• limited resources• slow process• information breach• low attachment• difficult knowledge transfer
One of our main focus points was interaction between stakeholders. After identifying key features of an virtual internship, potential situations and prob-lems were evaluated.
List of Possible Tasks to Students
Participants made a brainstorm on general tasks and their structure, which could be delivered to the virtual intern. Listing those features, we may find the following:
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• divided in smaller parts• increasing difficulty• tools• assistance
• beneficial• research involvement• sharing of availability
Overcome Lack of Technical Knowledge of the Student
One of the main problems the student could face during its virtual internships is the lack of technical knowledge on the topic he is working on. After asking participants this issue, participants thought about ways to overcome this prob-lem:
• change internship• ask for help from the company• mentor• help from professor• check for past projects similar to
yours
• online course + written instruc-tions
• seminars• other interns• inform the company• books• peer group
Overcome unavailability of Company Mentor
From past experiences of face-to-face interns, the unavailability of the compa-ny mentor it’s also a problem which may define the failure of the whole goal of an internship - help the student to apply his technical knowledge in a company and gain experience on the topic. Consequently, students presented some ideas to overcome this problem:
• try to communicate with another mentor
• arrange a back-up mentor• talk to the university• try to reach mentor via different
communication channels
• wait• find the authority replacement• tell the company about the prob-
lem – get new mentor• university mentor• other interns
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Behaviors of each Stakeholder
One of the most important opinions we wanted to hear from participants was the most suitable behavior from each of the 3 stakeholders during the virtual internships.
Company profile
• Be involved• Provide a mentor• Quick help in case of problems• Clear, professional, consistent in
requests• Ask and give feedback• Well organised• Trustworthy• Give challenging tasks
• Strive to improve students skills• Be flexible towards student’s
needs and ideas• Provide suitable tasks• Supportive• Provide training• Provide tools and data• Understanding• Motivating
Student profile
• Willing to lear new things• Respectful towards company’s
working methods• Proactive• Creative• Open to criticism
• Professional• Self-motivated• Hardworking• Actively involved in the project
development
Univeristy profile
• Actively involved in the project• Helpful in administrative matters• Feedback work progress• Provide tools and knowledge una-
vailable in the company
• Supportive• Proactive in connecting student’s
with companies• Protect rights of the students
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Interaction between stakeholders
To finish the session, we asked participants how did they feel the interaction between each of the stakeholder should be, in their opinion.
• Promotion• Compulsory Communi-
cation• Deadlines• Virtual Internship as
part of degree program• Scholarship• Professor <-> Student
colse relationship
• Student connected to HR/mentor/
• Constant communica-tion by mail, phone, skype,
• Weekly meetings & on demand
• Communicate about tasks, problems, pro-gress, reports, ideas, schedules
• Gather expectations towards each other to ensure effective, friend-ly atmosphere
• Company should send offers to university• Universities should look for certain positions and specific programs• Companies should provide feedback about student knowledge• University should ask about student performance• Specified way of communication between the two• Specified people (mentor/teacher)• Universities should send requirements about the program• Transmit the student complaints
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Evaluation of PROVIP platformThis session was led by Roman Verraset from KU Leuven and was in form of a virtual conference. Firstly different stages of the virtual internship were explained and then mockups of the platform were presented. Students have evaluated the version they have been shown and proposed some new features that in their opinion would improve the platform and in extend the quality of the virtual internship.
Students’ main concerns were that few companies will be themselves at the platform and after finding the job, many will abandon it for using other tools they are more familiar with. Although they find the platform very intuitive they would like to have an introductory video on how to use it. Moreover, since university isn’t that involved in the process, the focus while developing the platform should lie on the interaction between students and companies. An-other drawback that they was identified was connected to endorsing student’s skills. Since they have to be confirmed by the university and chosen only from a certain pool of possibilities, many of the skills that student has and that are useful for the job might be left out.
Many of them would like to see testimonials from students that worked at given company before. A common structure for all testimonials was proposed where students can pick some things from drop-down menu or tick boxes that would rank certain aspects of the internship. However, a free text box is also necessary for other comments.
Other things students would like to see there is a list of things that the company is willing to do during the internship, give a mentor with some certain amount of hours assigned only for working with the intern, access to their intranet or databases, etc. Also a live chat was proposed to make it more dynamic and interactive. One big feature that students found very useful is a forum, both a private one and an open one. They would like to be able to talk there with other interns about their job and experiences and potential problems without anybody from company supervising them and they would also like to have a possibility to communicate with the company, all together (if there are more interns in the same company) when similar questions occur.
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Virtual Internships vs
EntrepreneurshipIn order to bridge topics of virtual mobility and entrepreneurship, we asked participants to list advantages and disadvantages of entrepreneurship. Then they were presented with earlier outcomes of similar exercise for virtual mo-bility. By comparing both cases many similarities have been found, which of those are highlighted in the following tables.
Table 4: Advantages of Virtual Mobility and Entrepreneurship
Virtual Internships Entrepreneurship• Flexibility• Mobility• International experience• Access to multiple resources• Low costs for intern and company• Autonomy• Small conflict risk• Enhanced creativity• Empowered diversity• More opportunities
• Be your own boss• Flexibility• Dream fulfullment• Contribution to society• Intrinsic motivation• Increased creativity• Inspiration for others• Fast income• Possibility to engage family• Greater self-developement
Table 5: Disadvantages of Virtual Mobility and Entrepreneurship
Virtual Internships Entrepreneurship• Self organisation• Lack of physical access to equip-
ment• Lack of social interaction• Various working methods• Applyable for limited number of
subjects• Communication problems• Slow process• Easy information breach• Low attachment
• High risk• Huge workload• Lack of support• Demands different skills• Financially unstable• High level of responsibility• Highly market dependent• Stressful• Hard to quit• Highly bureucratic beginning
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What students have concluded is that virtual internships and entrepreneurship don’t immediately have direct links to each other or same advantages or dis-advantages, while in some cases they are even contradictory. However it was pointed out that student that had a virtual internship will be more likely to be entrepreneurs in the future. The set of skills that are developed during a virtual internship are needed from young entrepreneurs. Throughout such internships they will gain experience on how to manage their own time and resources as well as how to plan a project which is a starting point for a start up. Also entre-preneurs are more likely to hire virtual interns since they don’t have resources to hire a new employee, even part time. They are also more likely to relate to a case of a student looking for a job and will be more willing to provide opportu-nities that could help out the younger generation.
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EntrepreneurshipRadu Ticiu and Vlads Iscu from Timisoara Startup Hub were leading this ses-sion. Their goal was to give an introduction to entrepreneurship, mindsets and tools that are used by young entrepreneurs. A video about Start-up kids was shown, where young and successful entrepreneurs from across the world talk about their life, their work and their passions. Many stories about how it all began and what problems had to be concurred were shared in this video. For many students it was highly motivational since most of the entrepreneurs were in their early twenties.
Afterwards we looked closer at tools that are used when starting your own business. Main focus lied on lean canvas where all aspects of the prosperity of a company are clustered for assessment. Students in groups of four formed an imaginary company that evaluated their future work with the aid of lean canvas.
Introduction to Entrepreneurship
Business modelAfter introduction from Radu Ticiu to basic planning of a start-up and explana-tion of initial phases students were working in groups on their own imaginary businesses. They were put into the role of young entrepreneurs and were sup-posed to set up a business plan with the help or Lean Canvass. Throughout this exercise they learned the first basic steps within entrepreneurship as well as got familiarized with the factors that influence a company.
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The session is designed specifically for the participants of event. In order to of-fer them an experience of how newly established entrepreneurs manage their bussineses.
The participants were divided into two groups according to their interest and current study fields. Afterwards, both groups were guided to different start-ups which are all managed by young, enthusiastic entrepreneurs with different work environments and focus areas in professional life. Participants had the chance to breathe the atmosphere of dynamic, promising bussineses; their working methods, their culture and the frank insights of entrepreneurs.
The outcomes of the rally were very positive. The participants reacted the trip as one of the most inspiring activities they ever had in their lives. The mod-ern, futuristic and lively atmosphere of start-up working spaces were particular highlights. There were a lot of informal, joyful talks made, contacts were shared for future occasions. This practice proved to be very useful and beneficial ex-perience for participants.
Start-up rally
Timisoara Startup Hub
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SummaryFrom the 14th until the 20th of July, 16 european students expressed their own opinions about Virtual Mobility and got to know more about Entrepreneurhsip. It was a pleasure for BEST to serve as bridge between this participants and the two partners who played a big role in “Bringing Education and Entrepreneur-ship under Students’ Scope”: PROVIP and Timisoara Startup Hub.
Several recommendations were considered during this event and will be taken into consideration to PROVIP future actions. BEST is honored to take part of this initiative and hopes the outcomes of the event can be a great input to PROVIP project success.
ThanksWe would like to thank all the people involved in organising this event and help-ing us in making it happen. Special thanks go to:
PROVIP partners present at the meeting in Pavia, for providing ideas for the content
Roman Verraest, PROVIP for preparing and conducting session about virtual platform
Radu Ticiu and Vlad Isac, Timisoara Startup Hub, for sharing their knowledge and experience on Entrepreneurship
Owners and founders of involved start-ups for inviting us over to their offices and sharing with us their stories
Radu Marinescu, University of Timisoara for the inspiring lecture about the link between university and Entrepreneurship
Local BEST Group Timisoara for organising this even
