First innovation camp within project "From Idea to Business" organized in Sheki
Within the framework of the project "From Idea to Business", an innovation camp InnoCamp was organized in the city of Sheki on September 28-30 with the participation of local and foreign technoparks, representatives of incubation centers, investors and startuppers.
The innovation camp, which is implemented jointly by the Ministry of Transport, Communications and High Technologies, the Regional Development Public Union of Heydar Aliyev Foundation, Azerbaijan Youth Foundation, the United Nations Development Programme, Microsoft Corporation and Azercell, took place at the Markhal Hotel and lasted 3 days.
The main goal is to conduct trainings for local and foreign technoparks, as well as specialists of innovation centers, to teach new knowledge and create conditions for mutual exchange of experience and support the development of the ecosystem of startups.
The innovation camp has served as a platform for expanding ties and establishing new cooperation for participants.
In the future, it is planned to hold the camp annually.
A startup tour was held around the city of Sheki on the first working day of InnoCamp – on October 28.
At the event, representatives of "AIESEC in Azerbaijan" conducted training for the participants, which covered issues such as the formation of startup teams, proper preparation of project presentation, ways of selling the project to investors and market research.
Following the training, 7 teams comprised of participants were formed and the teams were trained for the competition by professional mentors. The schemes of these projects were developed separately according to the Canvas business model. It should be noted that this model is very important for the preparation of business plans in the field of entrepreneurship as it is simple and unique.
Then, the teams presented their projects to the jury within 3 minutes. The jury evaluated the projects according to the criteria of "Idea", "Innovation", "Technology" and "Accessibility".
The current global project, presented in the startup tour, was very different from the others, therefore, it was decided to conduct evaluation of Vugar Abdullayev's project "Strengthening Information Systems" by involving additional specialists.
Aytaj Ahmedova as the most enterprising participant in the social projects of the startup tour was invited to the startup tour in the city of Ganja.
According to the results of the competition, the jury determined the top three winners. Projects City Tour, Walking business, and shekide.com took the first, second and third places, respectively. At the end of the event the winners were awarded and won the right to participate in the National Final to be held in Baku.
It should be noted that the winners of the first, second and third places in the National Final will be awarded by the organizers and partners, as well as be provided the opportunity to present their projects within 24th Bakutel International Telecommunications, Innovations and High Technologies Exhibition and Conference.
The winners must develop the prototype of their projects before December 4-7, prior to the exhibition and conference.
On October 29-30, the camp "InnoCamp" continued its work with presentations, speeches and discussions of local and foreign technoparks, representatives of incubation centers, investors and startuppers.
Experts from Vietnam, Kazakhstan, Georgia, Maldives and other countries participated in the innovation camp.
Nurlan Zhanibek, head of Microsoft's Educational Development Mission for the CIS countries, giving a presentation, noted that favorable conditions have been created in Azerbaijan for the development of innovation. According to him, there is an opportunity in Azerbaijan to expand the scale of projects depending on the number of people. He stressed the possibility of providing support for the preparation of a roadmap in this area. At the same time, he invited Azerbaijani startups to participate in the competition of ideas (Hackathon), which are conducted by the company in 76 countries.
Head of Microsoft Azerbaijan Sarkhan Hashimov said the international innovative competition Imagine Cup held by Microsoft will also be supported within the project “From Idea to Business”.
Presentations were held for the participants of the camp on "Financing of Startups", "Choosing Future Professions", "Blockchain Technologies", "Latest news on drone technologies", "Internet of Things", "E-commerce - selling ways without leaving home".
Furthermore, the authors of startup projects such as Boomerang Card, Healthy Life, Sumaks, and AREA shared their success stories and provided in-depth information about their projects.
Rashad Azizov, head of the department of Innovative Development of Information Society and Electronic Governance of the Ministry of Transport, Communications and High Technologies said during his speech at the innovation Camp that the scope of the project "From Idea to Business" has been further expanded. He noted that recently the ICT Investor Club was created for the development of the innovation ecosystem, which is coordinated by the Ministry of Transport, Communications and High Technologies.
He emphasized that the activities of the InnoInvest club will cover such areas as the development of entrepreneurship in the field of ICT in our country, budgetary cuts with the attraction of private investments in this area, improvement of the investment climate in the field of ICT and proper distribution of private investments, integration of new technologies into the local economy, the expansion of the application of research and innovation.
Thanks to the Investors Club "InnoInvest" investors will be able to earn a better return by investing in promising ICT projects, to come together with several investors in innovative projects to create a joint fund, as well as to get support from the government. Perspective startup projects will have the opportunity to meet with investors and get investment opportunities on favourable conditions for startups. As a part of the club's activity, financing form crowdfunding has been created on the website of the project "From Idea to Business" in the special section – "http://i2b.az/az/innoinvest".
Rashad Azizov said that companies, successful entrepreneurs, individual entrepreneurs (business angels) investing in startups, startups who achieved success with the help of the club can act as members of the club.
He noted that several successful startups have joined this platform.
In conclusion, active participants of the camp were awarded certificates and excursions were organized to historical places of the city of Sheki.
