We are thankful to EU Strategy for Danube Region, who is covering travel grants for young leaders coming from the Danube region countries: Austria, Bulgaria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Moldova, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Ukraine.
Successful applicants will have their accommodation and meals covered for the duration of the program.
Due to a newly gained partnership, we are able to offer additional travel grants to young leaders coming from countries of EU Eastern Partnership (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, Ukraine). Participants from these countries will also be offered a specially tailored program continuing after the Young BSF, therefore they are expected to be available from 7th to 14th of September. Successful applicants will have their accommodation and meals covered for the duration of the program. Application have therefore been extended until 27th of May 2018.
Young entrepreneurs are an important part of the today’s societies as they bring an important energy and enthusiasm to the daily life. CEP has been with support of the Slovenian Ministry of Foreign Affairs through the official development cooperation engaging BiH and Kosovo young entrepreneurs for last four years. They have been given an opportunity to meet among themselves, discuss hot topics with various investors and experienced business men and women. Many of them have received valuable feedbacks, useful suggestions and important contacts. They have spread their business network importantly and have been able to assists younger start ups in their home country.
Workshops in Sarajevo and Pristina in beginning of the year were well attended which proved that young are interested and willing to actively shape their future. They were encouraged to present their idea and apply for participation at the regional conference Podim, organized in Slovenia in May 2018. They have widely taken the opportunity as 34 ideas from BiH and even 75 ideas from Kosovo submitted their pitches. Best 10 from each country have been carefully selected by an expert committee and invited to join the programme in Slovenia.
All participants will gather on Monday, 14 May at Jable Castle for a breakfast with the Ambassadors of their countries in Ljubljana for short discussion with members of Slovene start up environment – ABC accelerator, Technology Park Ljubljana, together with representatives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, responsible for the Western Balkan policies.
Selected participants will attend PODIM Conference in Maribor, Slovenia on 15 and 16 May 2018, participate in the biggest networking event for start-ups in the Alps-Adriatic Region, take part in the PODIM Challenge pitching competition and be presented in the PODIM Start-up Catalogue for the one-on-one meetings with PODIM investors and blue-chip partners.
By joining forces, CEP and PODIM conference offer young entrepreneurs an additional learning dimension in the creative process and empowers them to step ahead and present themselves in front of the investors that can help them transform their ideas into a promising start-up company. Additionally, connecting like-minded from the country might bring longer and wider impacts on national entrepreneurial environment and possibly, policies.
The start-ups chosen from Bosnia and Herzegovina are:
Entrepreneurial mindset and innovative thinking are the foundation of a healthy growth of the economy, which in turn ensures prosperity and an adequate level of development for all inhabitants. Young entrepreneurs are therefore indispensable and very resourceful part of each society. Active and creative minds are important for economic development, prosperity as well as for positive outlook.
This is why CEP for the second year in a row identified start-ups from the Danube region to participate in a fully funded entrepreneurial programme “Facilitating Enhanced Cooperation among Young Danube Experts” at the largest start-up conference in the region, PODIM Conference. PODIM conference is a leading start-up conference in Alps-Adriatic region that has been first time organized 38 years ago. In this time, it developed from a smaller entrepreneurial conference to leading gathering in the region. It shows how actors from various fields and levels can work together and reach much more than they ever could alone.
Having started by supporting the young entrepreneurs from Bosnia and Herzegovina and later on from Kosovo, the programme expanded to additional 9 countries participating this year: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czechia, Hungary, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia and Ukraine.
CEP supports entrepreneurs and young people with entrepreneurial ideas who would like to develop and upgrade/advance their ideas, assists them to meet and connect, as together, with different approaches and broader pressures, they can influence the entrepreneurial climate in their own country.
Best entrepreneurial ideas were selected through a “PODIM Challenge” competition that we organized together with the PODIM Conference. Young entrepreneurs had to present their idea, team and business plan. The expert commission has reviewed a large number of very competitive applications and made the final selection.
CEP as the PA10 Coordinator will host them in Maribor, Slovenia during the PODIM Conference between 14 and 16 May 2018.
The outcomes of the“Back on the Agenda: EU Enlargement and Western Balkans” project are now available online. The report includes policy recommendations prepared by the four discussion groups:
PARTICIPATION
SOCIAL AFFAIRS
DEMOCRATIZATION
RECONCILIATION
Read the report here:
A two-day event brought together representatives of young generation and civil society for a Visegrad cafe discussion, policy boot-camp and public debate with the national and EU decision-makers.
The event was organized by the Centre for European Perspective (Slovenia) with the support of the International Visegrad Fund and in cooperation with the Institute for Foreign Affairs and Trade (IFAT) (Hungary), EUROPEUM Institute for European Policy (Czechia), Slovak Foreign Affairs Association (SFPA) and Polish Institute of International Affairs (PISM).
Are you a young leader between 18 and 35 years old, with a proven record of making an impact on your community, country or the world at large? Then we cordially invite you to apply for the Young Bled Strategic Forum 2018 (Young BSF).
Young BSF is an annual conference bringing together young leaders to engage in lively discussions and develop out-of-the-box solutions to some of the most pressing world issues. The Young BSF model has been growing and changing, and has become a unique meeting place for a diverse array of young leaders, entrepreneurs, bloggers, thinkers and socially active individuals, offering them a platform to share their visions, exchange ideas and connect with one another. Numerous thought-provoking ideas have been suggested over the years, while the main objective remains clear: to bring together audacious and action-oriented individuals from different fields and offer them a collaborative, creative, and inspiring environment for discussions and networking.
The 2018 event will take place under the title: ‘Sustainable Security: The Role of Youth in Bridging the Divide’. A sustainable security approach proposes the resolution of the interconnected underlying drivers of insecurity and conflict, with an emphasis on preventive rather than reactive strategies. The central premise of the sustainable security approach is that we cannot control all the consequences of insecurity successfully, but have to work to deal with the root causes of instability. The Forum will place special emphasis on cross-regional cooperation. A new generation of leaders will demonstrate that such cooperation is not only necessary, but inevitable the next positive to be taken in democratization, fighting corruption, terrorism and climate change, and fostering social, economic, and cross-cultural sustainable development.
Topics to be discussed:
Intergenerational relations,
Agenda 2030,
Reconciliation,
Future of the EU,
Cyber Security and Artificial Intelligence,
Climate change,
Western Balkans,
Digitalization,
Security in the Mediterranean,
Security in the Middle East.
Young BSF is an integral part of the Bled Strategic Forum international conference. To link the two and blur the lines between different generations, three topics from the main event will be selected and discussed from the youth perspective, while three outstanding young leaders will be selected to participate as speakers at the main event. This will add value to BSF, bringing innovative solutions and shedding light on youth perspectives. Youth will have an opportunity to meet leaders from the governmental, business and non-governmental sectors, and join them in discussions addressing salient issues.
Young Bled Strategic Forum is committed to ensuring equal opportunities to attend the YBSF are available to young leaders, regardless of their ability to pay. We work closely with our partners to provide all of our participants with accommodation, while a number of travel grants for candidates of various backgrounds and nationalities will be ensured. Travel grants may be awarded to selected participants on an individual basis and only up to the amount decided by the organizers, while we will ensure regional and expertise representation.
Countries eligible for the travel grant: Albania, Austria, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Ukraine.
The selected participants are expected to join in the extensive preparations and pre-event online meetings between June and September. Please note that the official language of the event is English, and that this is a prerequisite for participation in our activities.
Apply at by 20th of May 2018 at the latest.
For any additional inquiries, do not hesitate to contact us at [email protected]
