Thursday 24^th January 2019, marked the end of the second successful workshop for CKM’s Interreg: i3 project “i3 – Education for ideas, inventions and innovations for entrepreneurship”.

As hosts, we organised training in entrepreneurship in the digit sector for a group of 50 participants from 5 countries of the Balkan Med Area. 10 trainees from each of the project partner’s countries joined the specialised entrepreneurial training, geared towards a different theme in each country. The project aims to promote territorial development and cooperation by the establishment of a model for entrepreneurial training and transfer of knowledge for young entrepreneurs.

Furthermore, the workshop was opened with speeches by Mr. Suhejl Fazli, the Minister of Local Self-Government, followed by Ms. Anita Nikova, Director of the Chamber of Commerce (MASIT), and Dr. Andrijana Bogdanovska, the Director of the Centre for Knowledge Management. We were honored by the presence. Moreover, they outlined the state of the “ICT” sector in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, and emphasized the need for sustainable innovations in this theme, within the country, and the whole Balkan-Mediterranean region.

For the next three days, the trainees would undergo specific training including; Business-model-creation, value proposition, budgeting and planning, state of the “ICT” sector. For that, we are very grateful for the invaluable support from our team of experts, Prof. Marjan Gushev, Dragan Pehcveski, Irena Jakimovska and Goran Kalajdziski, who guided all the trainees through this unique, innovative and fun experience. The 50 trainees from the partner countries (Albania, Bulgaria, Cyprus, FYROM, & Greece) were divided into five teams that represent all of the countries in each. The workshop ended with awards for “Most Innovative Idea”, “Best Business Model”, “Best Value Proposition”, and “Best Presentation”.

Focused, calculated, creative, passionate and always showing an endless amount of energy into the i3 project, we marked the closing of the successful workshop with a traditional dinner in a national restaurant where all our partners and new friends had the chance to experience our local delicious food and enjoy their last night in our beautiful city of Skopje.