Roundup of the first ever SEC2U (Startup Europe Comes to Universities) week!
The first ever Startup Europe Comes to Universities (SEC2U) week has come to an end, with over 35 universities taking part, across 18 countries.
Startup Europe Comes to Universities (SEC2U) is a cross-border initiative that aims to showcase the commitment of European universities to create a culture of entrepreneurship and facilitate connection between the academic and entrepreneurial community.
In particular, it hopes to bring together universities, entrepreneurs, local government and local business people on university campuses across Europe. It is coordinated by the Startup Europe University Network and comes under the umbrella of Startup Europe, a European Commission initiative.
For this first edition of SEC2U, the participating universities hosted 38 different entrepreneurship events on their campuses, all during the same period, between 17th & 21st of October.
The grand opening
The first ever edition of SEC2U was kicked off on 17th October with an event in Brussels at the EBN.
After opening the event and introducing the SEC2U initiative, there was a roundtable entitled “What is the role of Universities in the startup and entrepreneurial ecosystems development?”
The week saw a great diversity of events, with the following universities taking part:
Albania: European University of Tirana
Austria: WU – Vienna University of Economics and Business
Belgium: EBN
Croatia: Algebra University College
Cyprus: European University Cyprus, University of Cyprus
Germany: Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nürnberg
Greece: Technological Educational Institute of Western Greece, Athens University of Economics and Business
Hungary: EötvösLoránd University
The Netherlands: Maastricht University
Ireland: Dublin City University
Israel: Bar Ilan University
Italy: Polytechnic University of Milan (Creative Industries Lab), Roma Tre University – Department of Engineering
Kosovo: Universum College
Lithuania: Mykolas Romeris University & ISM University of Management and Economics
Portugal: NOVA University of Lisbon, University of Lisbon – Faculty of Sciences
Romania: University Politehnica of Bucharest, AlexandruIoan Cuza University of Iasi, Stefan cel Mare University
Spain: University of Salamanca, U-TAD: Centro Universitario de Tecnología y Arte Digital, University of Cantabria (CISE project), Technical University of Cartagena, University of Granada, University of the Basque Country, University of Extremadura, University of Almeria
United Kingdom: Ravensbourne, University of Sheffield, London South Bank University, GSM London & Formation Zone London
Although all of the events were based on entrepreneurship, each University offered its own special perspective. For example, some universities showcased the culture of entrepreneurship within their own locations (their university or city), and others focused on particular expertise such as raising finance, learning from failure and innovative technologies.
A great success!
Overall, SEC2U had more than 2000 participants across 38 events hosted by the 35 participating institutions from 18 countries across Europe.
There were more than 1500 tweets & retweets with the #SEC2U hashtag along the week with a total reach of more than 1 million people!
What they said
It was very interesting and inspired me
I could talk face to face with young startuppers, they were so enthusiastic about their ideas
The speeches were really exciting
All in all it was a brilliant week which saw some excellent events and we hope to see you next year!
Useful information:
Startup Europe University Network: www.startupeuropeuniversities.eu
Startup Europe: startupeuropeclub.eu
SEC2U contact: Matevz Gantar, University of Salamanca / BISITE Accelerator
We Start Lisbon: an entrepreneurship event for students in Lisbon!
We Start Lisbon was a fun, interactive student entrepreneur event held at Universidade Nova in Lisbon, run by a number of collaborating partners in the European startup world.
On 21st October 2016, students interested in entrepreneurship gathered at Universidade Nova in Lisbon for a day of inspiring talks, and a fun interactive treasure hunt & pitching game with prizes.
We Start Lisbon was organized as part of the first ever SEC2U (Startup Europe Comes to Universities) week, a cross-border initiative that aims to showcase the commitment of European universities to create a culture of entrepreneurship.
In the same week as 35 universities across 17 countries held events on entrepreneurship, We Start Lisbon was held at Universidade Nova in Lisbon on 21st October.
Opening #WeStartLisbon!
The event opened with high energy and some inspiration from two of the co-organizers, MY-WAY and Digistart. Everyone was excited abut using the day to share fresh ideas, break the ice and make meaningful connections (even if the students didn’t yet have a startup idea!).
The very exciting treasure hunt and pitching game was organised for the students by Charlotte and Francesca of Hugin&Munin, the communications agency in Madrid that manages the communications for Startup Europe.
Over 100 multi-coloured triangle shaped boxes were hidden all over the auditorium and event space, from which the students had to collect minutes to pitch their idea live online on Periscope and twitter, as well as find a special number to maybe win a prize!
The winners of the pitches would then get the chance to go on stage to pitch at the end of the event, giving them loads of visibility!
The morning: local advice, product development, facing failure and treasure hunts!
The first panel was made up of a group of young speakers from organizations NACUE, AEGEE, MIT/MBA, Barlan Ent Club and YES. Holly Knower, Pablo Hernandez, Manuel Countiho, Julia Tshuva, and Maria Logotheti discussed the startup activities available in their local ecosystems: UK, Greece, Spain , Portugal and Israel.
Next up was a workshop on Product Development with Matt Kuppers from Startup Manufactory, in which the audience shared their ideas with Matt on their potential products, as well as asking questions on problems that they had encountered during development.
At the coffee break the teams of young entrepreneurs and student startups started presenting themselves to Hugin&Munin to do their pitch! This group were a team of 4 studying at the Universidade Nova, who had an idea on how solve traffic accidents!
After everyone had enjoyed their coffee boost, the next workshop was very inspiring. Miha Matilevski talked about his experience of failing and how to beat the depression and anxiety that comes with it. He explained that we should reconceptualise failure as a learning experience. If we are failing, we are learning.
Next up was a panel with on how universities can promote startups, with Matt Kuppers (Startup Manufactory), Prof Andres Iborra (UPCT), Prof Diego Caceres (UPCT), Prof Mariana Pita (Aveiro Uni), Prof Manuel Laranja (ISEG) and Prof João Paulo Crespo (Vice-Rector NOVA).
At lunch the treasure hunt game continued with Hugin&Munin, with students looking for triangle boxes in their lunch packs! Here we can see Portuguese startup Wishmood, a drinks app to order drinks wherever you are.
There were also more pitches: on slow fashion and travel, and new mobile technologies!
The afternoon: workshops, PR, internationalisation and prizes!
After lunch the students were then wowed with a workshop by the highly energetic David Trayford (Founder-thehub.hu, team Project Coach at Singularity University), on how to pitch to investors. There was no time for a lull after lunch, as he snapped everyone into focus and put everyone into groups to come up with some pitching ideas on the spot!
Promotion for startups was discussed next by Thomas Ohr, who gave pointers on how to contact journalists with a press release, and then spoke to Miguel Alpoim Ruas (Doctor Spin PR/ Special Projects Startup Lisboa) on how to work with PR agencies.
Internationalisation was the next topic presented by Micael Gustaffson, who spoke about his experiences of going to Asia and the US, and talked with two very different startups, Mark Bastiaanssen (Pakketmail) and Lourenço Jardim de Oliveira (Linehealth)!
Finally, we had the panel ‘how to go from idea to business: help from ecosystem actors’, with Edite Cruz (Beta-i), Davis Gouveia (Start up Lisbon/ Uniarea) and Diana Pati (Startups.be), rounding off the event nicely!
At the end of the event, the final winners of the pitches were announced by Hugin&Munin!
The winning students startups had ideas to solve traffic accidents, on slow fashion and travel, a drinks delivery service, and technology services for companies. One of the prizes included copies of the book Startup Guide Lisbon, a book full of case-studies and tips on the Lisbon startup scene.
Congratulations!
Overall the event was an inspiring homage to the student entrepreneur and startup scene in Lisbon. Not only did it give the students the opportunity to connect with new people and listen to the advice of startup leaders, but it also gave them the opportunity to try their hand at their first pitch!
We Start Lisbon
MY-WAY in partnership with Digistart
Event Language: English
A day filled with exciting activities, inspiring speakers and a job fair for your skills. Sounds fun?
Join us in Lisbon, the next global entrepreneurial Hub and begin your entrepreneurial journey.
In this one day action packed event we bring together experienced Startup Leaders and Speakers from across Europe to share their inspiring stories.
We Start Lisbon – The European conference for students and young web entrepreneurs!
After two successful editions of MY-WAY’s Student Enterprise Conference, the StartupEurope projects DIGISTART and MY-WAY joined efforts to create We Start Lisbon, theEuropean conference for students and young web entrepreneurs.
The one-day event is part of the Startup Europe comes to Universities week and will be held in the Universidade Nova de Lisboa,Portugal on the 21st of October, 2016.
MY-WAY and DIGISTART are EU funded projects which are part of the Startup Europe initiative. Whereas MY-WAY focuses on enhancing and improving the role of student organisations, connecting them with web entrepreneurship initiatives and web/business experts for the benefit of young adults across Europe; DIGISTART’s focus is to provide an Europe-wide web entrepreneurship ecosystem by connecting two local ecosystems (Lisbon and Malmö) in order to help university students to develop business analytical tools for digital startups.
The projects joined forces to create “We Start Lisbon” – an event which will serve as a unique opportunity and meeting point for young entrepreneurs and students willing to launch their business to meet investors, mentors and other key players of the European startup ecosystem, network with peers, and learn new skills to pursue their dream. The event will also host a little job fair, which will connect students and young professionals with promising startups that are currently hiring. A great opportunity to join a fast growing tech company and learn about web entrepreneurship first-hand.
If you want to know more about social entrepreneurship, product development,copywriting, how to pitch investors, how to build a business network, how to raise funding and how to get the attention of the local and international media,then this event is for you!
At “We start Lisbon” you’ll also meet some inspiring female entrepreneurs, learn about how and when to think about internationalisation and get valuable entrepreneurship advice on how to learn from failure.
Register now and become a part of the European web entrepreneurship ecosystem. The event “We start Lisbon” is for free, so don’t hesitate and secure your ticket now!
If you’re a startup founder and currently aiming to grow your team, make sureto contact the “We Start Lisbon” organizers in order to take part in the little jobfair, which is going to take place during the conference. A link to the contact form can be found on the event’s Eventbrite page.
Startup Europe Comes to Universities (SEC2U), which “We Start Lisbon” is part of, is a Europe-wide initiative which engages many European Universities and enables them to exhibit their effort with spreading entrepreneurial culture. TheSEC2U week is going to take place from 17th to 21st of October 2016.