Alexandroupolis transformed into a centre of entrepreneurial thinking

Alexandroupolis transformed into a centre of entrepreneurial thinking

Alexandroupolis transformed into a centre of entrepreneurial thinking

Alexandroupolis was transformed into a centre of entrepreneurial thinking during the weekend of 18-20 February. Around 30 internationally renowned professionals, experts and academics were guests of the Evros Chamber of Commerce for the evaluation of the Light Hub teams.

During the three-day event, the guests met with the management of the Evros Chamber of Commerce, representatives and executives from the business ecosystem of the region.

On the first day of their arrival, the distinguished guests had the opportunity to meet the board of directors of the Evros Chamber of Commerce and discuss with the scientific committee of the support structure. President Christodoulos Topsidis welcomed the mentors and stressed the importance of specialization as a prerequisite for professional development. He then thanked the mentors for their contribution to the vision and the effort to give Evros and our Region a new development perspective, based on new concepts and fresh ideas. He concluded by expressing his appreciation to the guests for their willingness to offer specialized and useful knowledge to the beneficiaries of the entrepreneurship support structure program.

On the second day, meetings were held with institutions, the mentors were briefed on the procedures and the final evaluation took place. More specifically, in the morning hours, the mentors were informed about the process and the axes of evaluation of the teams by the head of the scientific committee Mr.Petros Soukoulias and the training coordinator of the structure Mr. George Theriou. On the same day, President Christodoulos Topsidis, accompanied by mentors, visited His Eminence Bishop of Alexandroupolis, Mr. Dimitris Petrovic, while the distinguished guests’ escorts had the opportunity to get to know Alexandroupolis with visits to the Ethnological Museum of Thrace and the Historical Museum of Alexandroupolis.

Before the start of the main event, on Saturday afternoon, an information day was held for the cross-border accelerator, the creation of which is led by the Evros Chamber of Commerce and implemented in the framework of the Interreg V-A “Greece-Bulgaria 2014-2020” cooperation program. This was followed by the evaluation of the teams.

In the main event nine (9) business ideas were evaluated from a total of 27 mentors. Business ideas that exploit the potential of information and communication technology, augmented reality and internet of things (IoT) technologies and biotechnology were presented. The ideas propose solutions for energy saving in energy-intensive buildings, individual primary care management, the cosmetics industry, the wellness sector and the enhancement of tourist destinations.

In the next stage, the Scientific Committee will meet to collate the mentors’ evaluations and produce the final report for each group. The beneficiary groups will then receive feedback and will be informed by the coordinators about the next stage of the support program. The three highest scoring groups will have access to their own office and support from six to twelve months, while the remaining groups will receive an individualised support program, the duration and nature of which will depend on the evaluation.

NEW ROUND OF APPLICATIONS

The new application cycle opened on 16 February and the Light Hub invites new business ideas from groups or individuals wishing to join the Light Hub to fill in the application form online at: https://bit.ly/LH-Call2

*The entrepreneurship support structure accepts applications for admission to the program twice a year. Applications are evaluated by the coordinators and if they meet the minimum criteria, candidates are admitted to the first stage of the program.

Useful links

The event was held with the support of

Light Hub is the entrepreneurship support structure of the Evros Chamber of Commerce, which is part of the operational program “Eastern Macedonia-Thrace” and is co-funded by Greece and the European Union.

The info day, the collaborative space, the neuromarketing lab and the cross-border accelerator is implemented in the framework of the Interreg V-A “Greece-Bulgaria 2014-2020” cooperation program.