Hey there! I’m back with another post about my excellent adventures abroad!!!
Another arguably EXCELLENT adventure (Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure)
So this post is about Core Course Week at DIS. What this essentially means is that I had the great fortune of traveling with my Business Entrepreneurship Project (aka my core course) for a total of five days. Of that time, three days were spent in Sweden (namely Karlskrona and Malmö) and two days were spent in Copenhagen. The purpose of this week was to take our studies beyond the suffocating confines of the traditional classroom setting by gaining direct exposure to the wondrous world of entrepreneurship. In layman’s terms, we go to see what it means to start a company in the real world, which I found to be incredibly exhilarating and insightful. Here’s a more official description of the week’s objectives:
Core Course Week Objectives:
- Build a strong bond among the students, and an ease in sharing the ideas that will be the foundation of the projects for the remainder of the course.
- Inspire the students through interaction with key actors on the entrepreneurial scene in Southern Sweden
- Gain an in depth understanding of the structure of the entrepreneurship sector in Sweden, hereunder the types of incubator schemes that are made available for new start-ups
- Have a thorough workshop aiming at developing an initial draft business plan for the projects.
- Receive project feedback from local entrepreneurs
- Get an opportunity to develop your business ideas
— BEP Core Course Handbook
In advance, I would like to apologize for the length of this post. There’s lots of information (you can skim as you see fit) and tons of pictures (YAY—the good stuff!) Please enjoy!
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 8TH
— Blekinge Business Incubator —
BBI works to help establish a process for young businesses based on lessons, experiences, changes in the industry, and specific company information to create an individualized plan. The BBI staff are responsible for the majority of the business development during a company’s process and will also bring in external expertise when necessary.
The BBI process consists of the ‘Process’ which is a testing phase to focus on the business idea, model, and plan complete with a time frame. The next step, the ‘Start-Up Phase’ consists of the product development. The third step is ‘Expansion’ which consists of preparing for volume management as investors are met and cash flows are increasing. Finally, the ‘Take Off-Phase’ occurs as the company’s time at BBI is coming to an end.
BBI’s daily operations are financed by the Innovation Incubator Program Bronze IBIP. This program strives to make Swedish incubators more efficient to promote and create new businesses from Swedish research.
— BEP Core Course Handbook
— Inquso —
Vision: Simplify employees’ usage of smartphones and tablets while creating a safe wireless communication.
Mission: Develop and sell a cost reducing and user friendly mobile device management system that is targeted at small and medium sized companies in co-operation with strategic partners.
About: Inquso AD develops and markets the product “Secure Phone.” This is an advanced solution for mobile device management and security to allow organizations to benefit from the advantages of mobility without compromising their security over wireless communication.
This product is sold through partners.
— BEP Core Course Handbook
— Kayaking in the Karlskrona Archipelago —
Yes, we did this. And by “we”, I mean everyone else in my class managed to successfully kayak. I on the other hand managed to not only flip my kayak and fill half of it with water, but also managed to do so within the first few minutes upon departure! My apologies as there are no pictures from this epic (the scenery was beautiful) voyage considering that I didn’t want to bring my phone along with me for the icy plunge into the water. Regardless of my lack of coordination, I highly recommend kayaking in Karlskrona if you ever find yourself in the area.
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 9TH
— Hyper Island —
For over 15 years Hyper Island has been designing learning experiences for students and industry professionals alike. It all started with three men, a few beers, and one vision. The year was 1994, and multimedia pioneers Lars Lundh, Jonathan Briggs, and David Erixon converged in bar in Stockholm to discuss an upcoming CD-ROM project.
Together they realized their new digital world demanded a new kind of learning: industry-based learning. They envisioned a new institution that could prepare people for the lightening-fast pace of the modern workplace. A place where students could grow, not only as professionals, but also as human beings.
In the start-up spirit of the times, they thought, why not build it themselves? While visiting the island of Stumholmen, just off the coast of Karlskrona in southwestern Sweden, Lars stumbled upon a former military prison and decided it was the perfect unorthodox location to bring their vision to life. This new center for learning would value personal and professional development equally. It would inspire creativity and innovation by challenging students to practice experiential learning: to vigilantly question, reflect deeply, and ceaselessly explore different approaches to challenges large, small, and unimaginable.
They named it Hyper Island – “hyper” was a popular coding term – and its prison doors opened in 1996. The students studied in the cells.
Hyper Island is now a thriving global presence, with two main areas of focus. Student Programs immerse young talent in intensive learning experiences from digital art direction to e-Commerce to data strategy. Executive Programs boost understanding of how digital changes societies and consumer behavior — and how organizations need to change to stay creative and competitive in an increasingly digitized world. Hyper Island is now worldwide, located in Stockholm, Karlskrona, New York, London, and soon, Singapore. And Executive Programs teams can travel around the world designing and executing learning experiences for Fortune 500 companies and start-ups alike.
As the digital world shifts and evolves, Hyper Island continues to react and expand, creating an agile, forward looking learning environment for students and industry leaders. What began as a bold experiment on a windswept island has become a revolutionary way to learn, reflect, collaborate, and above all, innovate.
— BEP Core Course Handbook
— MINC! —
MINC helps entrepreneurs to faster growth with lower risk in a creative and network-based environment and is a platform for meetings between young entrepreneurs, traditional business, research and innovation. Our businesses are Minc / Incubator, Minc / Workspace and Minc / Meetings.
Minc is a company owned by the City of Malmö, which opened its doors in January 2003 on Anckargripsgatan, amidst the accelerating innovation environment, next to Malmö University in West Harbour. Minc is a platform for growing companies and those with high skills related to various industries. Minc helping to create valuable meetings and discussions, and is an important link between established companies, entrepreneurs and research. Minc, the catalyst and the entrepreneurs are the engine of Malmö and the region’s future economy.
Minc started its business with a focus on running a business incubator. Today, the business has expanded to include two additional components: Minc / Workspace and Minc / Meetings.
Mission: Minc there for ambitious entrepreneurs with knowledge intensive business ideas with the level of innovation and high growth potential. That more and more entrepreneurs setting up in the region and in the city of Malmö contributes to both the region and the city of Malmö is changing to an attractive knowledge region.
Vision: Minc be experienced and perceived as the leading innovation environment and an attractive meeting place for entrepreneurs, businesses and researchers. MINCS brand to be known, stand for high quality and have good reputation. Minc will be the region’s natural center for the development of entrepreneurial companies in niche areas ICT, media, design and industry and service concept with high knowledge content.
— BEP Core Course Handbook
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 10TH
— Malmö Bike Tour —
Yes, the ‘stache is real. The bike ride was informative and awesome. The ‘stache didn’t make it past sundown (I vowed to keep it only for the day and thereupon hastily shaved it off later that evening)
— Media Evolution City —
Media Evolution emerging: Skåne and Blekinge has been for a long time been a couple of Sweden’s most innovative and driving areas for development within the media industries. But to go even further identified, for a couple of years ago, the need to coordinate all efforts.
Academia, industry and government gathered their forces and finances, established a common vision and created an organization that would ensure that targets are met – Media Evolution was born. Furthermore, established media as one of the region’s priority growth areas and with Tillväxtverket created economic frameworks for Media Evolutions activities the first few years.
Media Evolution was founded and constituted as a non-profit organization in December 2008. Since then we have been a neutral platform in the center of the rapid change and cement and fuel, paving the way for new business models, new products and new services.
Until January 2010 Media Evolution went under the name of Moving Media Southern Sweden. The association owns since January 2009, a public limited company that drives business operations.
Participation in the focus of: Our ability to act based on a great willingness from all of southern Sweden. Municipalities and regions have media development as a priority focus area. At the same time industry and academia an interest to cooperate and realize that it’s not the ideas that are the great asset, but when ideas become reality. Here we share our ideas to jointly develop something that would otherwise forever remained in the desk drawer.
An extension of the MMM: Media Evolution is also an extension of Media Meeting Malmö – a project undertaken between 2004-2009 with funding primarily from the Knowledge Foundation, the City of Malmö and Skåne. Media Meeting Malmö was one of the Foundation’s eight venues for the entertainment industry in Sweden.
— BEP Core Course Handbook
— Malmö Brewhouse —
We went to the Malmö Brewhouse to listen to the owner’s amazing entrepreneurial story and taste some of his handcrafted beers. The experience was truly amazing. I ABSOLUTELY recommend stopping by if you are ever in Malmö. Fun fact: The owner also sells award-winning, world-renowned chocolates in the shop he owns next door! (THEY ARE DELICIOUS!!!)
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 11TH
— The Business Model Canvas —
We spent the good part of the afternoon pitching our ideas to one another and working on team formation and creativity exercises. Below is the rough list of business ideas spawned from everyone in class. From these we will be selecting our projects/companies to create throughout the remainder of the semester!
— International Career Night —
We attended a DIS sponsored event in the evening where a panel of expats working & living overseas informed us of their career paths and decisions. The event was informative and followed by a delicious dinner where we had a chance to network and ask for advice about internship & job opportunities abroad.
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 12TH
— Wooster —
Friday morning we sat and listened to the founders of Wooster—an event based app that connects people to do things together. We were able to test out the application and provide valuable feedback to the creators.
— Iværk & Vækst Entrepreneurship Event —
Iværk & Vækst was an entrepreneurial expo in downtown Copenhagen that we attended later in the day. We had the great fortune to listen to some prominent speakers in the Danish entrepreneurial scene. We also had the chance to walk around the expo and interact with several different Danish startups.
— Copenhagen School of Entrepreneurship (CSE) —
To finish off the Core Course Week, we traveled to the Copenhagen School of Entrepreneurship (CSE) and heard pitches from several startup companies. CSE is essentially an incubator for students and young, aspiring entrepreneurs. All in all, this was a great finish to the week and we received amazing exposure!
FIN
Chasing Copenhagen: The Saga Unfolds 