1st Entrepreneur Week – Marinha Grande Capital of Entrepreneurship

In a time where entrepreneurship assumes a remarkable importance and is an important subject on the definition of economical policies for the European governments, it was intended to contribute for the promotion and dissemination of this subject, aiming different target groups, from youngsters to young entrepreneurs, enterprisers and investors.

Following the subject of this event, and in a completely new way in Portugal, it took place the first Entrepreneurship Trainers Training Course in our country. This course, aimed to trainers and facilitator agents of entrepreneurship, was directed by Professor Chris Curtis, President of the CG International and considered to be one world’s greatest expertise in Entrepreneurship Training.

CG International works with organizations and governments from the whole world, promoting entrepreneurship as a fundamental tool in the ability of citizens to positively determine their quality of life. This sort of activity was already made in 65 countries from the 5 continents.

With the demands of an extremely competitive world in constant mutation, an entrepreneur attitude is extremely important for leadership, innovation, creativity and productivity, not only for business, but also for governments.

Under the theme “The experience is the textbook”, Professor Curtis developed a unique and dynamic training methodology, based on a perspective of “learning by experience”. This potentates an entrepreneur education because it arises the positive and self trusting attitudes of the trainees, motivating creativity and energy at all ages and allowing the learning of a new way to see entrepreneurship. The training was monitored on a basis of an educational model centered on the experience of each participant, using it as a component of a wider program. This means that after a brief introduction and explanation of the objectives to achieve, the trainee is an essential part for development of the training, learning this way how to do things happen. With this methodology, through the activity “Entrepreneurs for one day”, the participants of the train had the chance to exercise their entrepreneur activities. For a period of 24 hours they developed the idea for a business, implemented it and commercialized the products with positive results, an action that took place in the streets of Marinha Grande.

In the beginning of the week happened the opening dinner, which had the participation of Dr. Lino Fernandes, representing the Minister of Science, Technology and Higher Education. He spoke about the most important actions to support entrepreneurship and innovation that are included in the Government Program, that include the new tax incentives policies of activities for the investment and support to investigation and development. The dinner also had a speech of the businessman Wolfgang Kemper, who pointed out the main characteristics of an entrepreneur as being the strength of will to surpass difficulties and the acuteness and creativity to identify and materialize business ideas. He also encouraged youngsters to launch themselves in the adventure of entrepreneurship, giving some clues about good opportunities to make business and some areas that can be exploited in Portugal to make the country more competitive.

Being sure that the entrepreneur spirit is taught and stimulated since a very young age, it was conducted an awareness seminar about entrepreneurship, which had the attendance of about 200 youngsters from several schools of the district. Professor Curtis involved the participants in a brainstorming activity that made the seminar a pleasant moment for everyone.

Trying to ease the closeness between entrepreneurs and investors, it was organized a Round Table about Financing to Startups. Dr. Francisco Banha moderated this session that had the participation of some of the most important CEOs of Venture Capital Companies – PME Capital, Change Partners and Beta – Venture Capital Society. This initiative allowed the clearing of many doubts that entrepreneurs have when approaching these investors. There were some problems pointed out, such as small financing volumes and its relation with management costs, one of the biggest barriers for the investment of joint ventures in startups. The role that business angels may have in this context was also mentioned.

Due to this reason, and trying to enlarge the discussion to the businessmen of the region, it was organized a dinner debate. In this, it was discussed the role of the business angels as the Godfathers of new business projects of high potential promoted by youngsters with no management experience and weak financial resources. From the debate, it were launched the basis for the creation, in the region, of a club of Business Angels, based in OPEN, for the support of new entrepreneurs and new projects able to potentate the economical development of the region. It is intended that, besides financial support, one can take the chance to benefit with the businessmen knowledge, the ones who crossed many barriers, so that they can support the new entrepreneurs and give them this accumulated knowledge.

This week ended with the “Young Entrepreneur Day”, in which some participants of the seminar had the chance to put into practice the teachings of Professor Curtis. This took place in a fair next to the Monastery of Batalha, where youngsters went to “the other side of the counter” to apply and exercise their entrepreneur knowledge, always with the orientation and encouragement of Professor Chris Curtis.

In a final evaluation, the result of this week can be considered as very positive. It was, indeed, a week in which entrepreneurship was in the lead and, as a result, it is expected for this demonstration to have had enough strength to be repeated in future initiatives, in a process predicted to be growing in the next times. Next July, the incubator will be opened and it is expected from this week to have been a strong motivation for the entrepreneurs to present business projects able to contribute for the renewal and development of the economical activity throughout the region.