The young people of Zemgale prove their business skills in "Business night" - EEZ un Norvēģijas finanšu instrumenti
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Local Development and Culture

The young people of Zemgale prove their business skills in “Business night”

The third youth entrepreneurship and creativity hackathon “Business Night 2022” was an event filled with anxiety and unique emotions. In a 30-hour work, 61 young people from Zemgale created and developed a business idea, and presented it to knowledgeable entrepreneurs and experts. For the first time, along with the Jānis Bisenieks Foundation, the Zemgale Planning Region (ZPR) joined the team of organizers, and this is the first year that young people from all municipalities of Zemgale Region participated in the event.

Various ideas and prototypes were created as possible solutions to various current, social and other problems, like a stage to be built on a floating platform, fertilizer created from corporate food waste, an accessory – a planner that will also suit visually impaired people, a single card for documents, and various mobile apps – for collecting waste thrown into nature, promoting the employment of young people and students, spending quality time with friends, assisting in public events and other events, as well as cooking virtuoso.

In order to get to the presentation of the final ideas, young people had put in a lot of work – ideas were improved, there was constant work with mentors, prototypes were created, calculations made and presentations prepared. “Mentors were present, but young people were very independent and understood the tasks well. They knew what to do themselves, used the Internet, went through the cycle, built, tested, understood what is not working, tried again. This is fantastic because the idea changes depending on what the mentors, the jury, and someone else said, so it is important that the skills and knowledge remain – how to move forward from the idea,emphasized Nikita Kazakevičs, a business specialist.

Creating an idea in this “Business Night” was also one of the first steps to be taken, and it is important that the creators believe in it. The student of Jelgava Secondary School No. 4, a member of the team “IDemic” Eva Estere Tiltiņa, was convinced about the idea of ​​her team and admitted that she would like to buy such a service herself. Her team created a single card for the electronic storage of education and other documents. “The night was long, we thought a lot, the hardest part was defining ways to attract customers and identifying sources of profit. After visiting the mentors, sometimes it felt like a throwback, but we realized that they told us what we didn’t see from our point of view. It gave a bigger incentive because we wanted to prove that we can, ”reveals Eva Estere Tiltiņa.

Not only the knowledgeable mentors were a great support to the participants, but also the caring team of young volunteers who worked tirelessly all night to give a helping hand to the hackathon teams. Volunteer Gundega Grūtupa says: “Each of us had a team to be responsible for, I was like a mom to them – I helped with technical issues, provided the support needed, took care of them all night, made sure everyone was fine, calmed down when needed.”.

Gundega has already been a volunteer in the first two hackathons. “I am glad that such a unique event is taking place in Latvia. First of all, it happens at night, which is the party time for young people – a party combined with work. Secondly, the ideas are created and improved by participants themselves – they have free rein. Third, they can create a running business overnight – I find that very cool. ”

After pilot presentations to the first jury, which also included ZPR project manager Sigita Šilvjane, the final improvements were made to the prototypes and presentations, and participants were ready to present their work to experienced entrepreneurs and industry professionals for evaluation. The jury consisted of Mairita Pauliņa, Head of the ZPR Business Center, Professor Sandra Muižniece-Brasava, Head of the Technology and Knowledge Transfer Department of the Latvia University of Agriculture, Imants Kanaška, Head of the Jelgava Association of Producers and Traders, Andris Upenieks from SIA Signum and Mihaels Roberts Gūpijs from Aquatica Plumbing Europe Ltd.

“I was so excited about such fantastic ideas and teamwork that can be done in 30 hours. Of course, it was difficult for the jury to choose the three best candidates, but we had a number of criteria that we took into account. We evaluated the idea, presentation, and teamwork. I believe that this event is also important in the long-term – young people will have skills and experience for life,” says Mairita Pauliņa. She adds that entrepreneurship education and the creation of new entrepreneurs are one of the priorities of the ZPR, and it is a valuable opportunity to be a part of the Business Night organizing team.

Santa Tuherma, an expert working with young people in the entrepreneurship field points out that Business Night is an event with added value. “It is a great tool for fostering the entrepreneurial skills of young people, and I am delighted that we have a real generation of young entrepreneurs. Even in the context of lifelong learning, entrepreneurship is one of the key competences a person needs in today’s world. ”

Three teams received the 300 euro cash prize in the hackathon final – “Food For Thought”, “Grow me”, as well as the aforementioned “IDemic” with Elizabete Jansone, Eva Estere Tiltiņa from Jelgava Secondary School No. 4, Ralfs Rubenis and Agnese Birova from Jelgava technical school, Jūlija Kupcova from Salas Secondary School, Magnuss Jānis Jefremovs from Jelgava Spidola State Gymnasium. Cash prizes were provided by hackathon sponsors.

The members of the team “Food For Thought” Kārlis Birkmanis from Jelgava State Gymnasium, Ieva Tihonova, Evelīna Meijere from Ozolnieki Secondary School, Daniels Aleksejevs from Jēkabpils Agribusiness College and Helmuts Vēza from Jelgava Technical School created a mobile app prototype, that offers a food recipe from products you have at home and helps to find nearby stores where you can buy the missing ones or alternative.

Jānis Bolšteins, Linda Elva Andersone from Jelgava Spidola State Gymnasium, Valters Tumens from Aknīste Secondary School, Amanda Kalva and Darja Andronova from Salas Secondary School and Arturs Bernāns from Jēkabpils Secondary School No. 2, who represented the team “Grow me”, created a prototype mobile application where young people and employers can ‘meet’ online.

The Business Night was organized with the additional support of the Jānis Bisenieks Foundation within the EEA Grants project “Entrepreneurship in Zemgale”, which aims to teach young people entrepreneurial competencies according to the EntreComp model.

The project “Entrepreneurship in Zemgale” is implemented in the EEA Grants programme “Local Development, Poverty Reduction and Cultural Cooperation.” The EEA and Norwegian Grants is the financial support provided by Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway. The total budget of the project is 969256 EUR, of which the EEA Grants co-financing is 793867 EUR.

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