The first round of the lectures took place on 13, 15 and 16 in Prilep, Bitola and Ohrid, respectively and the second round was held on 27, 28 and 29. A total of 130 participants were registered to attend both rounds of lectures, out of which there were registered 60 business ideas. The majority of those who participated in the lectures were coming from the cross-border area.
The program trainings were led by a renowed group of lecturers and mentors from diverse backgrounds within the business and academic sectors. In the first round, professors Tasko Rizov and Dragan Sutevski from North Macedonia and professor Anastasios Ntabizas from Greece spoke about ideation, business model canvas, business model testing, MVP etc. In the second round of the lectures, the focus was on IPR protection of new start-up ideas: entrepreneurial strategy of start-ups, market identification for start-ups, funding, finance and investment readiness, marketing of a New Technology. With this, the participants had the opportunity to absorb the expert’s know-how and learn some new approaches and strategies to utilize in their business ideation.
The feedback from the participants had been amazing, where they were all satisfied with the lectures and the overall organisation of the training workshops and further shared how valuable this gained knowledge is for the creation and development for their businesses. It has been exciting to see the flow of enthusiasm from the companies and participants involved, which has affirmed the great potential within North Macedonia and the cross-border region at large.
As part of the business accelerator, participants will be able to take part in a business idea competition in Ohrid in mid-July, out of whom the finalists will be given the opportunity to take part in the final in Thessaloniki in mid-September and receive valuable awards. With the aim of strengthening entrepreneurship in the cross-border region between Greece and North Macedonia, this accelerator is bound to foster change and economic growth by inspiring businesses to be and do more. We wish all participants good luck and are looking forward to seeing all their business ideas successfully materialize!
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