EANET newsletter # 27

You are so far away and so often in my mind

News from Ilia State University

Trainings in Innovations Management and Modern Technological Trends

In January 2016 Ilia State University Technological Commercializing Center Office

conducted series of trainings for students on subject “Innovations Management and Modern

Technological Trends”. Issues of intellectual property protection and innovative

entrepreneurship were discussed on seminars.

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We are Proud! We are proud to inform you that the innovative game Warlock VR, that was created at

GameLab Iliauni (GameLab Iliauni is the only game lab in Georgia) is the winner of world’s

one of the most prestigious game contest Leap Motion 3D Jam 2.0. Leap Motion launched

its second 3D Jam competition in July of 2015. Developers had until November 9 to submit

their applications for the event. All of the applications that were successfully submitted were

then subject to a community vote, as well as ratings from Leap Motion. There were nearly

200 submitted applications, from which the top 11 were selected to win a share of the

$75,000 prize pool.

Leap Motion had two different categories for the competition: the AR/VR Track, which had

five winners, and two community favorites, and the Open Track, which had three winners

and two community favorites.

The first place prize in the AR/VR track was awarded to Lyra VR, which lets you create

music in 3D space. The developer of this application took home $10,000, a license for the

Unity Suite, two OSVR hacker development kits, and an Nvidia GeForce GTX 980Ti.

Second place was presented to Warlock VR. This game lets you “cast spells, shoot plasma

balls, and harness cosmic power.” Warlock VR also has a multiplayer mode that lets you

battle other warlocks. Leap Motion awarded the developer with $7,500, Unity Pro, a single

OSV HDK, and a Geforce GTX 980Ti.

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Event for Exchange students

On January 22 Ilia State University International Relations Department organized orientation event for the 2015­2016 year exchange students who were leaving for Europe to continue their studies there. Representatives from Georgian National office of Erasmus+ Program and Iliauni International Club members were present on the event to share their experience and information about the Universities.

Tour in Nut Processing Plant The Iliauni Entrepreneur Alumni Center is planning to organize the tour in nut processing

plant. The plant is run by the member of the center. 23 Year old Mariam Kodua is occupied

by the nut processing since she was 16. The nut is exported to EU market, mainly in

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Germany and Poland. The tour will be

informative and students and center

members will have the opportunity to

learn more about the nut processing in

region Zugdidi, Georgia; and to identify

the current problems and future

challenges of the business. “It is quite

difficult to satisfy EU market needs”

notes Mariam “and it is more difficult to

explain to local people the quality

requirements for the product. Georgian

honey also has great perspective in

terms of EU market, as we can meet the EU standards”

Iliauni Entrepreneur Alumni Center Project

The Iliauni Entrepreneur Alumni Center

has launched new project that aims to

finance one of the best students at Ilia

State University with the scholarship of

one year study. The members of the

center have already expressed their

willingness to participate in the project

by donating necessary amount money.

The students will be selected by the

contest.

From: ISU (Maia Noniashvili)

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Berkeley “short” Report from Anoesjka A training session for a combined group of UC Berkeley students (from different faculties) with entrepreneurship ambitions, 30 or so start­up entrepreneurs from within and outside the University of California, and a combination of faculty and students from universities abroad. The total number of attendees was around 130, 70% of which consisted of UC Berkeley

students and entrepreneurs. A vivid experience. The first day of this intensive program focussed on getting acquainted with elements of what we know as the “Lean Start Up” methodology to starting a new business venture, basic principles of starting a business, getting to know each other and sharing the various business ideas and scientific and technological inventions brought in by the participants. An impressive array of business opportunities and ideas was pitched to the audience by various participants, and UC Berkeley students freely assigned

themselves as venture team members to the various business ideas selected to be prepared for venture capitalist presentation. Amongst these business ideas were breakthrough innovative concepts like brain­function­optimisation technology, invented by neuroscientists in Silicon Valley, an alternative energy technology invented in Hong Kong / China, medial devices for paramedic to monitor lung function, new ways of accessing legal documents (Germany) and investment advice (Silicon Valley). An impressive collection of potentially disruptive innovations which had already several years of scientific research and development invested in them. In addition, the usual variety of mobile applications was presented, including apps to change the way we shop, we behave think, measure and improve our health were presented as well. The difference with the usual entrepreneurship training sessions we know at IBS was that now these app ideas and concepts were presented by computer scientists and engineers who had already looked into coding and functionality, knew how to plan, develop and execute such technology, and were somehow acquainted with the Silicon Valley entrepreneurship ecosystem. In order to take these mobile apps to market though, they needed business and marketing oriented people. In short, the opportunities selected for the program represented great opportunities for both their owners and the students to work on real marketable business ventures and get maximum learning effect. To get from roughly 40 ideas to a manageable 20, ideas had to become self­selecting, which was organized in a natural voting and selection process for the students. Once all ideas were briefly pitched, all participants got 3 sticky notes with their names on them to vote for

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their favourite idea(s). Those with the most votes proceeded and some shuffling of team members needed to take place to avoid enormously big teams on the most scientific projects. A challenge Gigi Wang (organiser) and I (trainer & mentor in the BMOE Bootcamp) managed well and ‘just­in­time’ to get all the newly formed teams to get to know each other better, and further discuss the business idea at hand. The introduction day was guided with a series of interesting lectures by UC Berkeley’s entrepreneurship specialists on topics such as opportunity recognition, entrepreneurial mind­set and culture, venture fundamentals and the journey to entrepreneurship. Even though not explicitly mentioned, the process used was the lean start up method, focussing on the customer needs and behaviour before determining value sought, based on which the company can create both value and a story to convince the potential customer to buy and become part of the story.

To close the afternoon session and get into the evening of intensive working, coaching and making giant progress in understanding customer needs, business value and business modelling, the new teams required some form of natural leadership and dynamics. For this a fun, but highly effective game was introduced; the “Marshmellow Challenge” (. In no more than 18 minutes each venture team had to build a structure of spaghetti, tape, string and put the marshmellow on top. The highest structure would win. How to get to work now… do as small kids would; just try and try and try until the highest structure remains standing? Or do as grown up business people tend to do; talk, discuss, plan and start building in the last few minutes to see the planned and developed structure collapse before it could be measured?

This is precisely the intention of the game; become aware of the strength of trial and error on the road to success, and in the wake find out who is who in teamwork (leader, planner, creator, innovator, judge, …) A super fun and yet very educational exercise. See: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H0_yKBitO8M During the evening of this impressive and challenging first day, the teams went out with the intend to bond with one­another to ensure maximum team result in the short period of time they had. The dynamics were incredible and all eagerly teamed up and planned dinners, drink­ and work sessions for the evening. On day 2 the focus of the day was on “executing your idea” covering themes such as “going to market”, “pitching” and “building the perfect venture team”. Another day jam packed with lots of useful and inspirational insights, thoughts and practices.

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All groups worked on sharpening the business idea by creating a clear customer profile(persona) and a strong value proposition that would appeal to the customers targeted. No one other than Nathan Gold, Silicon Valley’s “Demo Coach” (http://www.democoach.com) led this session, sharing tips and tricks in his presentation and

instructing the participants on the most important elements to consider. In groups we set out to work on the assignment to prepare the 2 minute elevator pitch and all went to work with great vigour. Mentoring these teams was such a joy, helping the combined teams of experienced entrepreneurs, scientists, engineers and business students to bring their personal strengths and talents in sync with their teams. Striking how well the average American can present an idea or opinion. The fact that they are taught and trained from grade 3 onwards clearly pays off when they reach university (and beyond). The elevator pitch session was taken literally and all teams took turns in taking an elevator ride of 2 minutes with 2 venture capitalists. Nathan joined each team (only 1 person pitching and the others observing and filming

the exercise) and provided them extensive feedback, as did the venture capitalists . The afternoon was all about team building and working on discussing the business model of each business in the venture teams. Once again fantastic to get so involved in each venture, mentoring by asking many questions to get them to the core of the experience they each tried to bring to their specific markets. An interesting difference with the Dutch students was to see how open these people are to critique, acknowledging risks and willingly digging into threats, weaknesses and risks in their business propositions to figure out how to deal with them. Critique in the American culture seems to be an acceptable and even favoured form of feedback that these young, brilliant minds welcome and see as their opportunity to grow beyond themselves. And that is

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precisely what they accomplished in this unique mixed setting of international, professional and academic participants. On day 3 the focus was on business modelling and going to market with speakers from industry, including myself, talking about their own experiences, successes, failures and lessons learned. The main lessons all participants took from this day are that ‘networking’ and ‘building partnerships’ are the 2 most critical success factors that made Silicon Valley the start­up and accelerator capital of the world and that in order to become successful in what you do, you need to interact, think big and beyond the boundaries of your industry. This is visible in the drive, openness and accessibility of the people of San Francisco (and its surroundings). Every day a broad selection of events is organized in the “Bay­area” to facilitate networking on a broad scope of themes. People meet, connect, recommend and refer, making it possible for start­ups to join the game of the giants. I had the honour to talk about my own start­up experience with my previous toy­business and how I managed to grow my company into a player in the domain of the giants by partnering with Disney for product­design, producing at an industry­leading factory in China, marketing to the world from the main sourcing fair in Hong Kong and building and managing

global partnership networks. Pretty much in line with the Silicon Valley method of thinking; “Big and Bold”J. A fascinating panel discussion amongst venture capitalists closed the lecture part of the day. So interesting to hear how the system of venture capitalism works in the ‘Bay Area’ or Silicon Valley. There is so incredibly much money available, but as they explained, they receive on average 10.000 requests and business plans per year and they invest in perhaps 3 of them. 100% of the business plans

sent by email are REJECTED(!!!) without even having glanced at them. So if you ever consider approaching a venture capitalist, sending an email is a validated ‘no­go’. How then does one get in contact with a venture capitalist? You, I and the participants in the bootcamp wonder(ed)….. NETWORKING is the key.

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“You are only 2 handshakes away from your potential investor” is the answer. But make sure your story is good (slightly exaggerated), make sure you can impress and convince with a single sentence to gain attention and a maximum of 2 minutes to arouse interest and desire. On the final day of the Berkeley Method of Entrepreneurship Bootcamp each venture team had to try to convince a bar of real venture capitalists to invest. Before getting there, teams had to gain traction by means of real customer interest and stakeholder involvement. You do realize that in a timeframe of 4 days from idea choice to pitching for the real guys is a massive challenge. Panic! “Ms Timmermans, how do we gain traction?”, “what to do now?”, “can we do without?”; the usual panic attack questions were fired at me, but there is really only 1 answer and solution…… …… “GET OUT OF THE BUILDING and TALK WITH (not to) REAL CUSTOMERS” Last minute innovative action was taken to get in touch with stakeholders that could provide the necessary insight, feedback and critique to work out the business model, the pitch and convince the jury. Overall the week’s program was very inspirational. So much energy is brought into the program when compressed and accompanied with lots of speakers from the industry. Something to work on more aggressively in our own minor Entrepreneurship and in all modules actually. How to sustain such a dynamic program with “free” speakers? Let’s try the Silicon Valley rule…. “Pay it forward.” Student / receiver now, be the speaker of tomorrow. In the meantime, don’t just sit there and wait for someone else to take action, but bring in your own interesting speakers to juice up your courses. Thank you UC Berkeley, thank you Gigi Wang, thank you Martin Haring, and thank you IBS MT for making this experience possible.

From: HvA (by Anoesjka Timmermans) Some Information from KhNAHU At the end of last year Kharkov National Automobile and Highway University (KhNAHU), Ukraine, had the regular meeting of the Academic Council of the University where the coordinator of the TEMPUS­EANET project, Vice­Rector Prof. Tokhtar Georgi, provided information about the tasks and content of the project, its results after a year and a half is behind, about the established and registered Association of alumni­entrepreneurs of the higher education institutions in Kharkov, a special working group and the directions of its organizational activity, a number of meetings with alumni­entrepreneurs at different

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faculties (Automobile, Mechanical, Management and Business), multiple successful contacts with university alumni­entrepreneurs. The speaker emphasized it that close and constructive cooperation with alumni­entrepreneurs allows the university to get a new advance in its development. It can guarantee financial stability in the complicated economic conditions that a lot of Ukrainian universities are facing today at the expense of wise cooperation in the framework of the Association. Mr. Tokhtar attracted attention of the Deans of Faculties, the Heads of Departments, especially those ones that graduate students, to the need of more close interaction with all graduates, looking through the list of students who defend their diploma works at the departments, questing and getting in touch with them, inviting and discussing with them mutually beneficial issues for interaction. Special attention was paid to the more efficient involvement of alumni in interaction with students of all years of training and specialities (training courses, master­classes, special competitions etc.), which undoubtedly improve their motivation to study and as a consequence the quality of training. It will create more favourable conditions for employment in the future.

The students, who were present at the meeting, approved the initiatives proposed. The members of the Academic Council unanimously supported the idea of the setting up of the Alumni Council, which consists of the most experienced, highly qualified, active and professionally successful alumni, to coordinate the interaction with all divisions of university. From: KhNAHU (by Georgi Tokhtar ) Practical training of “KROK” University students supported by “Business League” Business League of “KROK” University supported practical training for students of "Marketing" major of College of Economics, Law and IT that is included to the structural divisions of “KROK” University. For students­trainees several workshops were organized where the students trained their practical skills in: telephone conversations (coach ­ member of Business League of "KROK" Marina Sbrodova), working with googledisc and googleforms (coach ­ Maria Mykhailenko). Member of Business League of "KROK"UAA Helen Valkovska told about her professional way in Marketing and organized the tour to the Marketing Agency. Visits to other companies

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of members of Business League of “KROK” UAA were also conducted , f.i. to AGT plus, the company owned and managed by Maksym Rogozhyn, who gave interview to Mary Benjamins for EANET movie during the National Dissemination Seminar in October 2015. The production practice was coordinated by the Head of Business League and KROK UAA Svitlana Zaripova.

Under the guidance of alumni the students conducted market research among KEPIT alumni of 2006­2014, which aimed to collect and analyze information on how their academic and professional lives changed after graduation. The results of the research are still being processed, but the preliminary feedback shows that many college alumni­entrepreneurs are ready to share their knowledge and experience in entrepreneurship as well as indicated their interest in activities within Business League. From: KROK (by Galina Bogachenko )

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Upcoming events

April 2016: PSC4 meeting in Moldova April 3,4,5 and 6 th at ASEM (The highlight event is postponed)

Appendix Send your small articles to eanetnewsletter@gmail.com Send copy until Edition Send date

17/02/2016 28 18/02/2016

02/03/2016 29 03/03/2016

16/03/2016 30 17/03/2016

30/03/2016 31 31/03/2016

13/04/2016 32 14/04/2016

27/04/2016 33 28/04/2016

11/05/2016 34 12/05/2016

25/05/2016 35 26/05/2016

08/06/2016 36 09/06/2016

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