AER 2016 Summer Academy (video)
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Hands-on business practices in Østfold: the YRN Business Game
YRN organised a very interactive workshop at the Summer Academy. The Youth Entrepreneurship Business Game was the result of the discussions of YRN Committee on Professional Life and Youth Entrepreneurship last year at the summer academy in Portugal, and at the spring plenary meeting this year in Lillehammer.
The introduction to the workshop was done by Ms. Stine M. Bjørnstad from Fru Blom Design. She shared her experience of starting her own business, responding with creativity to a concrete need. The coffee shop where she was working needed heavy tables for outdoor conditions that would not be easy to steal. Since they couldn’t find them anywhere, Ms. Bjørnstad decided to create them using local resources, and when clients started to ask where they could buy those tables, the idea of Fru Blom Design took form. You can find the presentation here.
This successful story was very inspiring and motivating, proving that you don’t need much to start with your own company. A good idea and the will to make it happen are the best resources to start. This premise set up the floor for the second part of the workshop: the interactive game.
Based on the Dragons’ Den game concept, the workshop challenged three teams to present a business idea to a panel of judges composed by Ms. Stine M. Bjørnstad; Ms. Siv Henriette Jacobsen (Vice County Mayor of Østfold); and Ms. Anne Wold (head of business section at Østfold County Council). The final product had to be socially responsible. Teams could opt for designing an eco-friendly product, or developing a business idea that contributed to solve the challenges of the refugee crisis (or both).
In the first part of the game, participant teams were given half an hour to make a poster about the main concept, through text or images. The second part of the game included a surprise. The participating teams were asked to swap the posters. The idea they will be pitching to the board of judges would be one of the ideas that was drafted by another team. Teams were allowed to make changes in the project, adding their own ideas and making it better.
What was the aim of the game? First, we wanted to make the participants use their imagination to come up with a totally new product that was at the same time a good business idea and a project that strongly addresses an existing problem in real life. The second goal of the game was to help people to step out from their comfort zone, by pitching an idea that is not their own project. It was interesting to see how the groups reacted to the pitch about their original ideas that were made by the second groups.
The participants came up with great business ideas & got valuable feedback and were encouraged by the board of judges to make them happen in real life. (If they don’t do it then someone else will do). In addition, all the business ideas were strongly associated with the refugee crisis, even though it was an option. This denotes a strong sensitivity to the issue, even when the refugee crisis is not on the focus of the media anymore.
Follow AER!How to make it into the business jungle without a degree?
Florence, Max and Jeremy are three young entrepreneurs from Brussels. They came to Sarpsborg to present their experience in Eyecone. Through their very different personal paths, they explained the difference between entrepreneur, intrapreneur and expert, as well as the pros and cons of each model.
The premise of the workshop was to discuss what are the options for young talented people starting in the business world. Those are moments of uncertainty, and young entrepreneurs often find themselves struggling to identify what is right for them and their future career.
At the workshop, the Summer Academy participants were introduced to a concept that most of them had never heard of before: Intrapreneurship. It is the practice of entrepreneurship in an established firm. Intrapreneurship applies the ‘start up’ style of management (characterized by flexibility, innovation, and risk taking) to a secure and stable firm. The objective is to fast track product development (by circumventing the bureaucracy) to take advantage of a new opportunity or to assess feasibility of a new process or design.
This concept sparkled a lively debate and many of the participants thought it was a very interesting option to combine the best of two worlds.
The conversation then moved into the World of Work and how culture conditions the attitude of a society towards entrepreneurship. Scandinavian participants mentioned the famous Law of Jante to explain why their societies disregard personal attitudes that aim towards individual success. This can explain why, when talking about daring to fail when starting a business, some Norwegian and Swedish participants answered that most of them wouldn’t even dare to try in the first place.
The outcome of the workshop can be summed up in one word: Inspiration! Participants were encouraged to overcome their fear of failing, and valorize people who try (even if they fail). That is the way to foster an entrepreneurial attitude in our societies, where those who DREAM are supported to take the next step and start DOING. We assist to a shift in the World of Work; in the future, work will be divided in short-term projects, with talented people working together as a dream team on well defined deliverables. Once a project is accomplished, they evaluate their work together, and then move on to the next one. As a result, a flexible, challenging, cost-effective, millennial-adapted economy would emerge, supported by regions and local economic players.
Follow AER!Entrepreneurship as a tool for regional growth
Entrepreneurship is a vital component of economic growth and development. The creation of new business entities not only generates added value, fiscal revenues, employment and innovation, but is an essential ingredient for the development of a vibrant small- and medium-sized business sector—the core of most competitive economies.
Hild Marit Olsen, an Executive of Education from the region of Nordland, talked to the Summer Academy participants about how they integrate entrepreneurship in regional development strategies. Entrepreneurship in a regional perspective has the potential to contribute to specific sustainable development objectives, such as the employment of women, young people or disadvantaged groups, Ms Olsen underlined. Taken into account the increased need of integrating refugees and asylum seekers, a possibility to start up their own businesses might be an important key to success. Social entrepreneurship is a tool for creating arenas for social interactions such as music festivals etc.
Growth-oriented entrepreneurs can also contribute to structural transformation and building new industries, including the development of eco-friendly economic activities, or the green change. We need to focus on how we as a region can increase entrepreneurship, not only about the single entrepreneur.
We have concentrated our work on some policy areas that have a direct impact on entrepreneurial activity. These are:
- formulating regional entrepreneurship strategy;
- enhancing entrepreneurship education and skills;
- facilitating technology exchange and innovation;
- improving access to finance;
- promoting awareness and networking
As an executive for education, Ms Olsen highlighted the role of education and skills for advancing entrepreneurship in regional development, creating a reciprocity. Regional development can benefit from our work on using education for advancing entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial skills in more than one way, and education can benefit and learn from entrepreneurship:
“Our mission is to prepare the students for life and work, and in my view integrating entrepreneurship into education and training we strengthen our mission with regard to aligning education with the needs of the outside world”.
Integrating entrepreneurship into our curriculum addresses the relevance of education and the development of the skills set of future workers and professionals. Future professionals need a broad set of skills, and the development of entrepreneurial skills are well aligned with recent reports on the future of education.
Entrepreneurship in education also has a pedagogical mission. The quality of teaching and learning can benefit from integrating the world of industry, public service and health into the classroom, thereby creating relevant and motivating learning processes for our students.
Based on our experience we want to continue to strengthen the cooperation between elementary schools and the rest of the educational system and private businesses. In collaboration we may provide new ways of learning science, preparing the next generation for studies at university level and the working life. Experience and positive feedback gives motivated and creative students; In our view the best way of decreasing drop-outs.
We have to create more workplaces and businesses. Even more important, the future generation has to create more workplaces and businesses. The wealth of Norway and Nordland lies in the oil, energy and fish, but the most important of them all is knowledge. And we cannot keep on exporting too many of our brilliant youths to other parts of the country or to the rest of the world. We need them here.
Article contributed by Inga-Lill Sundset from Nordland (NO)
Follow AER!How can the AgriFood sector attract young entrepreneurs?
On the 18th of August, Margriet Papma, Sarah Nietiedt and Dieuwertje de Vries, from the region of Flevoland (NL), hosted a workshop at the AER summer academy in Østfold. The title of the workshop was “Youth Co-makership and Entrepreneurship in Organisations” and focused on one main question: How to involve young people into the regional labour market?”
The goal of the workshop was to find new strategies to combine two important issues for the region of Flevoland (and other European regions), namely the stimulation of young entrepreneurship (of high-educated youngsters) and the stimulation of innovation in the AgriFood sector.
After a short presentation on the issue, the participants of the workshop were divided in groups to creatively brainstorm about new strategies and ideas to combine these two issues. The interregional groups discussed their ideas and at the end they presented their new strategies.
One common idea was to improve the image of the AgriFood sector and make it ‘sexier’ & ‘cooler’ for young entrepreneurs. Therefore, all relevant stakeholders (universities, farmers, AgriFood businesses etc.) should work together and use also the knowledge of other sectors like marketing or IT. For example, the knowledge of marketing students can help to start a campaign for a ‘sexier’ AgriFood business, with the help of IT experts applications can be created to raise attention of students, and pupils on the importance of the AgriFood sector. It was also seen as important to state that the AgriFood sector goes beyond traditional farming and that nowadays smart technologies and high-tech are used in the whole food chain. The idea of organising a contest for young entrepreneurs to come up with an innovative concept for an AgriFood related issue was also mentioned as a strategy to combine both regional objectives. Such a contest could be organised in collaboration with high-schools or universities. Finally, the possibilities of interregional learning and knowledge transfer, also with the support of the AER network, were mentioned as great possibilities to find new strategies to bring answers to both issues.
Summarizing, we are looking back on an interesting and fruitful workshop. During the final discussion it was mentioned that not only Flevoland, but other European regions gained new interesting insights as well and ideas for stimulation young entrepreneurship in their region.
Conclusions / reflections from the workshop “Youth Co-makership and Entrepreneurship in Organisations” provided by the speakers.
Follow AER!Live your values, by David Asplund
Some of the adjectives I heard used to describe the Summer Academy in Øsfold were the words “mind-opening”, “emotion-filled”; not so common you may say for a week of conferences… But that’s just it, the Summer Academy is not just any “week of conferences”. The programme is minutely prepared to balance the different parts, to keep the participants on the move and to favour engagement and participation.
One workshop that seems to have thrived on these principles was the “Live your values” session, led by David Asplund (Västernorrland-SE). The workshop was designed to highlight the importance of finding and sharing what drives you as an individual. We all have unique (hi)stories and backgrounds and it is important not to jump to conclusions or to judge others on a few actions.
The participants had the opportunity to share and talk about their own values, giving each other space, time and respect to do just that. “This is how we become role models for one another” explained Mr Asplund. An inspiring and uplifting example came from a Swedish politician who spoke highly about her grandchildren, and her love for them. How valuable they are to her, and she did it with an indescribable passion. Another representative talked about respect, and how importance it is for people sharing one planet. Respect starts with respecting yourself and then respects towards one another.
When asked how he felt about the session, Mr Asplund confirmed “I was quite satisfied with the workshop. As a person using emotions in my rhetoric, seeing people laugh and cry makes me feel accomplished with my task in inspiring people. Although I guess the true feedback comes from after my speech. I was approached by several people saying that my speech was good. I also had people sharing with me their own stories despite not wanting to do so during the workshop, this makes me happy to see!”
David Asplund is an inspirational speaker on youth development from Sundsvall (SE).
The purpose of his presentations is to eliminate self-doubt, by increasing commitment in order to achieve ones goals.
Find out more about David
For a better understanding of how David works with companies, here is an example where is is doing CSR work
Follow AER!Did you miss the Summer Academy?
Find out what happened in Øsfold (NO) from 16-20 August with the story from our social media. A big thank you to all the participants who actively shared information and pictures on Facebook and Twitter.
For the full programme, go to out event page.
Stay tuned on our social media with #AERSA2016. Pictures are published on our Facebook album.
The topic of the Summer Academy was youth entrepreneurship and the programme proposed many interactive sessions, workshops, keynote speeches and study visits.
Summer Academy 2016: World cafe on youth and social entrepreneurship
Thursday morning the Summer Academy focused on social entrepreneurship and the opportunities it offers to young people. The three moderators from the Youth Regional Network (Sebastian Sandberg, Diana Galeeva and Anton Eriksson) led the participants through the different phases of the interactive workshop and contributed to a fruitful session where everybody shared and learnt with the guest speakers and from the other participants.
First speaker was Tone Helstad Glomsrud, from Rakkestad School. She teaches entrepreneurship to young students coming from a rural area. Yesterday we had the opportunity to meet some of her students and learn about their projects. Today we have listened to more stories from the students at Rakkestad, their struggles and the successful stories, all of them shared with passion and inspiration by Tone. “I would shift the focus of the education system more focused from subjects to individuals”, she answered without hesitation when Summer Academy participants asked her about what she would choose if she could just change one thing in the educational system.
Second speaker was Michael Lund Thomsen, who works at the Østfold prison as responsible for education. They use entrepreneurship as a method in teaching because it helps young adults to see a purpose in their education, and therefore they take it more seriously. He highlighted how inmates enjoy every little victory with the same amazement kids would have: “Entrepreneurship does not discriminate based on their records, and it motivates them with the promise of a future when they leave the prison”.
Follow the AER Summer Academy 2016 on our web page, on our twitter @europeanregions, and all the pictures on our Facebook album.
Follow AER!Keynote speech #AERSA2016: Youth entrepreneurship and self leadership
Looking forward to inspiring and productive discussions on Youth Entrepreneurship in this Summer Academy 2016, after the keynote speech delivered by Staffan Taylor, one of the most talented young speakers in Sweden who is a member of YES for Europe, the European Confederation of Young Entrepreneurs.
Staffan Taylor inspired the crowd with a focus on the choices we have, fears that prevent us from reaching our full potential, and how a strong self leadership can improve our way of being entrepreneurs. He shared his own story, what are the keys within entrepreneurship and his best tools within the area of self leadership.
About his experience as an active member of YES for Europe, Staffan said: “I am thankful for being part of YES Europe. The networking between young entrepreneurs from various different countries in Europe is unique and important to bring people together from different cultures to share knowledge and experience. The entrepreneurs in Sweden have a lot to give, and we have a lot to learn. Together we are strong”. This is something every AER member can easily relate to: cooperation and sharing best practices help our regions to grow stronger.
You can find more about Staffan Taylor in his website www.staffantaylor.com.
All the pictures of the #AERSA2016 are available on Facebook.
For the programme of the #AERSA2016 and all other information, go to our event page.
Follow AER!Awarding youth-friendly practices in European Regions
Ms. Sonja Steen, President of the AER Committee on Youth, Education and Culture, announced during the opening ceremony of AER’s Summer Academy in Sarpsborg the 2017 edition of the MYFER award, recognising the efforts of the most youth friendly European regions.
A dedicated webpage will all the details of the competition and the application form will be ready soon, but here are some highlights of the competition:
- It aims to present and recognise best practices of European regions in facilitating participation of youth in all aspects of society, encouraging to take an active role as citizens.
- It is open to every region in Europe, be it a member of AER or not.
- Deadline to submit initiatives to the competition will be closed on 16 December 2016. Award will be given at a ceremony early 2017.
You can already download the rules of the competition and the award criteria.
Start identifying relevant projects in your region and in case you have some questions, don’t hesitate to write an email to Eirik Fiva (Nordland, NO) or Johanna Pacevicius (Secretariat).
Follow AER!Stay tuned for the Summer Academy #AERSA2016
The 2016 AER Summer Academy taking place in Østfold (NO) is starting today. The topic discussed will be “Youth Entrepreneurship”.
For the full programme, go to out event page.
Stay tuned on our social media with #AERSA2016. Pictures are published on our Facebook album.
Follow AER!Summer Academy: registrations now open!
Registrations for the 2016 AER Summer Academy in Østfold (NO) are now open! This mutual learning event on youth entrepreneurship will take place from 16 to 19 August and will gather policy makers young and less young from all over Europe.
Investing in the future
The title of this year’s Summer Academy is “Investing in our future: Youth entrepreneurship in Europe’s Regions” and will feature workshops, study visits and seminars on topics ranging from energy and ICT to achievement in the business jungle without College or University experience.
The AER Youth Regional network will have a major role in the Summer Academy with the organisation of a business game on youth entrepreneurship and a plenary session on social entrepreneurship.
Youth: a priority
For AER supporting youth in the job market is a priority, this is why this Summer Academy is focusing on youth entrepreneurship, a topic where Europe still needs to improve. Join the Summer Academy experience and bring new ideas home to support youth entrepreneurship in your region!
Practical information, programme & registrations
Page of the Summer Academy programme
Follow AER!
YRN prepares highly-interactive workshop on Youth Entrepreneurship
During the YRN Spring Plenary meeting, the committee of “Professional Life and Youth Entrepreneurship” worked with the outline of the workshop that is going to be held at the AER Summer Academy 2016 in Østfold (NO).
With an aim to give the participants an insight to the topic of Youth Entrepreneurship, and encourage them to come up with creative and innovative solutions the committee propounded the idea of holding an interactive 120-minute workshop for 30 people.
In order to raise the awareness and enhance the entrepreneurial spirit, the participants will be offered an opportunity to attend a lecture held by an inspiring guest speaker and learn from successes and failures from the real life experience. The second section – a business game – would challenge the creative power and presentation skills of the participants. It is important that the emphasis of the simulation should not be only on the aspect of profit creation but also on the development of new solutions for currently existing social, economic and environmental challenges. The jury consisting of a charismatic guest speaker, a representative from Innovasjon Norge (Innovation Norway) and a political leader would be encouraged to give feedback and evaluate the ideas based on the creativity, viability, and positive return to society.
The workshop promoting youth entrepreneurship with a focus on social entrepreneurship will aim to combine the ideas of circular economy that was also the main focus of YRN Spring Plenary.
On behalf of the committee of “Professional Life and Youth Entrepreneurship” we would like to welcome you to Østfold in August 2016!
Written by Grete Kesküla