SUCCESS STARTS at BNTU!

On October 6-11, 2014 the 3rd Forum of Engineering HEIs was held in BNTU. Within the framework of the Forum the Start-up Centre of BNTU organized the Session “Youth Innovative Entrepreneurship”. The concept of the Session was developed within the project TEMPUS SUCSID.

The session lasted for a week and consisted mainly of business-trainings with the leading researchers, directors of big companies, representatives of research organizations. The trainings were held in the form of the speaker sessions where the participants could freely ask questions and discuss the current issues with the guests of the Forum.

The first to take the floor was a distinguished physicist, Nobel prize winner Zhores Alferov.

Zhores Alferov delivers his speech

Zhores Alferov delivers his speech

Dmitriy Krupskiy, Head of the Science and Innovation Policy Department of the Ministry of Economics of the Republic of Belarus, discussed innovative business prospects in the Republic of Belarus with future innovative entrepreneurs.  The meeting with the Deputy Director for Science of the Research Institute for Physical Chemical Problems of the Belarusian State University Yuriy Nechepurenko aroused great interest among the audience. The participants of the session were able to get acquainted with possible strategies of their own developments market launch using the intellectual property mechanisms which include not only intellectual property protection, but right and well-timed commercialization. BNTU Professor Vladimir Minchenia shared his priceless experience in commercialization of his own developments on domestic and foreign markets. Professor Minchenia draw his attention to the importance of having publications in various foreign cited magazines. BNTU Professor Andrey Tur, in the past –  Deputy Head of the Belarus President Administration,  in his turn shared his experience in the field of public administration.

Andrey Tur delivers his speech

Andrey Tur delivers his speech

Success stories of young entrepreneurs also seemed quite up to the point. Kirill Levkov, Head of the project “Turboshere”, and Pavel Lushchik, winner of the 2013 Best Youth Innovative Project Contest, shared their experience in implementation of their own innovative projects, dwelled on the problems that may occur in the very beginning of the project implementation and gave advice on how to present the project to the potential investors.

Pavel Lushchik during his presentation

Pavel Lushchik during his presentation

Second part of the Session “Youth Innovative Support” was held on October 9, 2014 and included the presentations of the potential investors, successful entrepreneurs and researchers. Aleksander Mertinkevich, Deputy Director for Marketing and Business Development of High-Tech Park, dwelled on the key factors of start-up projects success and introduced three successful Belarusian start-ups – IT company EPAM systems, on-line game World of Tanks and mobile application Viber – to the participants of the Session. Business-angel Aleksander Knyrovich (BAVIN – Association of Business Angels and Venture Capitalists) answered the following questions: which projects are interesting to the investors, what is important to specify in order to arouse interest of the potential investors and what is to be avoided. The mechanisms of functioning of his own investment and consulting agency were described by the Chairman of the Expert Board on Investment of the Republican Confederation of Entrepreneurship Michail Borozdin. Anatoliy Grishanovich, Director of the Belarusian Innovative Fund, specified the mechanisms of financial support of innovative projects of the Fund.

Aleksander Mertinkevich delivers his speech

Aleksander Mertinkevich delivers his speech

Head of the Community Department at “GameStream” Yuriy Kudriavuy dwelled on how to develop a start-up project to the global scale using right marketing strategy: World of Tanks Case Study. Director of “Industrial Ecological Systems” LLC Yury Shapovalov shared his experience in management of an innovative enterprise, developed in Science and Technology Park of the University. PR and Marketing Specialist Elena Litovchenko gave valuable advice on how to prepare the project presentations for investors. Coordinator of the project “100 Ideas for Belarus” Alesya Vinnik presented the project and invited the audience of the Session to take part in the event. The participants were very inspired by the fact that the winners of the project “100 Ideas for Belarus” are awarded with the financial support in the sum of 11 million Belarusian rubbles for development of the business-plan of their innovative project.

First stage of the Business Battle lasted for two days. During this time the jury selected 18 projects to participate in the final competition. Finalists presented their innovative projects to the expert board and other participants in the form of presentations. Special attention was given to the economic components of the projects and to the advice and comments obtained during the trainings. At the end of the Battle not only best youth innovative projects were selected and awarded but also all the participants had the opportunity to assess the competitiveness of their business project, present the project to the potential investors and partners and had assistance on practical promotion of the project.

During the Closing Ceremony the winners of the Business Battle in two categories – “Best Youth Project” and “Best Research Project” – were awarded with diplomas and valuable prizes. We are happy to admit that the Best Youth Project was presented by the Start-up Center of BNTU client Oksana Safronova – project “Pilot production of magnesium cement nanomaterial and by-products from carbonate raw-material” (BNTU).