Our latest Erasmus+ project Youth Ecopreneurship Sprint was held in Zagreb during the last week of June 2019. It was organized by the members of the EU team of Ekonomska klinika. Overall, 30 people from six countries participated in the project, whose main purpose was to come up with business ideas that can be both profitable and eco-friendly.

The project started on June 23 when our guests arrived in Zagreb from six different countries – Turkey, Greece, Cyprus, Romania, Bulgaria and of course – Croatia. On their arrival day, all participants got together for a non-formal evening where they introduced the project timeline and got to meet each other.
The first formal day of the project was focused on getting to know each other better. Everyone participated in several team-building exercises like Scavenger hunt throughout Zagreb that the participants loved because it was fun and educational at the same time. They also played some ice-breaker games like „2 truths and a lie“ and „Personality Bingo“ that helped create a more relaxed and vibrant atmosphere.
The second day started on a more serious note; everyone met at the ChillOut conference hall in downtown Zagreb where our EK members introduced the process of idea development to the participants. The main idea of the project was to get from a business idea to a full-blown business plan in just under a week. The ecological issues we face today were discussed in great depth, as well as existing solutions to those issues. The participants showed a tremendous amount of interest which made our job a lot easier.
The third, fourth and sixth day were focused on developing their own business idea. They practiced presenting in front of the group, developed their own SWOT tables and business canvas models, they went out into the streets to do some market research by surveying random people and they got a chance to hear a presentation from a successful ecological entrepreneur from Croatia, dr. Marko Vinceković.
After that process was completed, on the seventh day the final pitch was held at the Faculty of Economics and Business of the University of Zagreb. Each participant group presented their business idea that they had been working on for a past couple of days in front of a jury experienced in entrepreneurship. The jury chose a winning team which was given a symbolic prize.

All in all, we are very satisfied how the project turned out. From what we’ve read on the surveys we distributed to the participants on the last day, they were also very pleased with the project activities, our team and, of course, Zagreb and Croatia. We forged many new friendships in a short amount of time, and we hope we will continue working together on many new projects in the future!