The 1st seminar, held on April 18, with 16 participants from the creative sector, entitled “Culture, creativity, entrepreneurship”. The 3 key-note speakers, Mr. Andreas Tsiliras, Mr. George Sarlis (cultural managers) and Mr. Filippos Kefalopoulos (marketing consultant) analyzed the terms entrepreneurship, creativity and culture and discussed with the attendees about their own business actions and thoughts. They engaged in the analysis of the importance of proper marketing in the establishment or development of a business to lead to success. The discussion led to the importance of the creative idea that will lead to creative entrepreneurship.
During the 2nd workshop, held on June 1st, the key-note speaker Mr. Vassilis Tountopoulos (Strategy and Business Development Consultant) presented to the 12 attended people and analyzed the Business Model Canvas while at the same time he distributed to the participants the corresponding material he had prepared to help them better understand the specific model. He then led the discussion on how a business idea can be turned into a viable business proposition. Finally, he instructed the beneficiaries as a team to present their own business idea and develop it, thus creating a pleasant discussion among the participants and solving their questions about what was said.
The 3rd seminar, held on June 6th, Mr. Vangelis Tsimplostefanakis (Business Financing Consultant) who was the key-note speaker, explained to 10 participants from the creative sector, the importance of elaboration and methodology of a successful Business Plan for a creative business and stressed the importance of a well-established business plan for starting or growing a business. He also shared secrets and tips with attendees to help them create their own Business Plan as much as possible, while also sharing with them examples of successful businesses as well as what to avoid in order not to fail.
The organization of workshops by the Chamber of Achaia is a concrete reply to the needs of the local creative and cultural industries, emerged after a survey conducted in 2020 by the Institute of Regional Development – Panteion University. The local creative industries can contribute to the local economic development however, they lack of significant skills on entrepreneurship, economic knowhow related to the innovative business models, so they need to be trained about these topics in order to become more competitive.