ToT Event on Capacity Building in Bulgaria

On 29^th February 2024, project members participated in a Train-of-Trainers Event on Capacity Building. The first part was dedicated to investments and presented by Mr. Svein-Magnus Sorensen, Expert of Investments and Chairman at NorBAN, and Mrs. Rita Anson, Expert on Investments and Secretary General at NorBAN, Norway. The main issue raised up was “How to be an angelist for your ecosystem?”. The concept of an “angel investor” and “start-up” were discussed, emphasizing on the access of start-ups to finance opportunities, analysis of business plans of start-ups, building a portfolio of cases and pitching to investors. The subject of the follow-up debate was the situation regarding start-ups and angel investors in the project regions. A case study of a Bulgarian start-up, Pastili, was presented through pitching, after which the participants were divided into 4 groups and stepped in the role of investors to evaluate the start-up by using a questionnaire.

„The practical approach of the training made me better understand the strategy we should use to encourage creativity and turn it into a successful business. Being an angelist is not an easy task but now we are stimulated to try it.“, said Iva Hinkova, representative of Mechatronica.

The second part of the ToT event targeted Specialized Innovation in Cross-Industry Smart Value Chain, and was delivered by Prof. Stelian Brad from the Technical University of Cluj Napoca, president of the CLUJ IT Cluster. The focus was on how a chain of partners can add value to the market by using their uniqueness for the region and how important is cross-industry collaboration. He presented a lot of best practices across Europe to demostrate how different actors combined their capabilities and grabbed the advantages of their regions to boost interregional innovation. The other challenge for the regions, which was mentioned, was the capacity to export outside the regions. A fruitful discussion followed, where the next steps for for building cross-industry value chains between project regions were outlined.

„The training provoked me to think about cross-industry collaboration from other perspectives. It widened my horizon and stimulated me to look for partners to build a smart value chain.“, said Harry Bogdanov, representative of Tehnoles.

CONTACTS: n.n.hinkova@gmail.com