In the period from 22 to 25 June 2021 through the ZOOM platform, organized by the Center for Climate Change – Gevgelija and GS1 Macedonia was held the first week of start-up businesses and small and medium enterprises (SMEs).
During the four days, numerous presentations and panel discussions were held by various representatives of institutions, companies and organizations dealing with the support of start-up businesses and SMEs in the Republic of Macedonia. The event was followed by more than 150 different participants, and was also broadcast live on the social network Facebook.
The purpose of the event was to promote the results of the project, to highlight the opportunities and conditions for starting your own business, to provide a discussion about the problems of start-up companies, but at the same time to be an opportunity to hear success stories from existing start-up companies .
The first day of the week for start-up businesses and SMEs was opened with introductory speeches by the President of the Center for Climate Change Ms. Bojana Stanojevska Pecurovska and the Executive Director of GS1 Macedonia Mr. Kiril Koroveshovski, followed by a presentation of the project and the virtual incubator. Furthermore, there was a brief presentation of the first three companies that will use the services of the virtual incubator: Horti Gardens, Nestbox and Mrkelangelos Kitchen.
The session was closed with a panel discussion on “Challenges for start-up companies” which was discussed by eminent professors Stojan Debarliev and Radmil Polenakovic, and Igor Madzov, co-founder of Startup Macedonia.
The second day was dedicated to the opportunities for financing start-up companies and SMEs, where representatives of the Fund for Innovation and Technological Development, SEAF Investment Fund, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, Uni Bank and Savings House Moznosti had their presentations.
On the third day, he presented the opportunities for start-up companies offered by the Employment Agency of RSM and the Agency for Entrepreneurship Support of RSM. The second part of the event was dedicated to presenting the opportunities offered by the Enterprise Europe Network Macedonia, the largest network of contact centers that provide information and advice to companies on European Union issues, followed by presentations of already prominent accelerators from Macedonia such as the Accelerator at UKIM, Seavus Accelerator Skopje, X – Factor Accelerator Veles and the Technology Park SEEU, Tetovo.
The last day of this week of start-up businesses and SMEs was dedicated to the success stories of existing start-up companies and it was organized in a combined form of monitoring, with direct participation of speakers in the studio in Ohrid and the ZOOM platform.
The first part of the event was dedicated to the presentation of the other three companies that are members of the virtual incubator: Diet Kom DOOEL, Ristovski Media and Kostoski 2018 DOOEL. The second part of the event was opened with a presentation by the organization Arno – Green Ideas, followed by a panel discussion of the success stories of the start-up businesses Creative Hub, Affiliates Perform and Solar Data.
The Week for Start-ups and SMEs was organized within the project “Increasing innovative business related to the sea, environment and agriculture and IT – (IBiSEAit), funded by the EU through the IPA cross-border cooperation program Greece – Macedonia 2014-2020. More information about the project https://ckp.org.mk.