PARTICIPATION IN PIT STOP PROGRAM
Participation in Pit Stop: PIT STOP project is funded by Priority Axis 1 (Innovation and Competitiveness) of the INTERREG V-A Greece-Italy Program 2014-2020 (Specific Objective 1.1 – Delivering innovation support services and developing clusters across borders to foster competitiveness). The project aims to support establishment of new incubators in the field of innovation as well as a space to accelerate the growth of companies in a supported environment, creating employment.
Finally, the purpose is to develop new business ideas and restructure existing SMEs.
A total of 5 partner organizations from Greece and Italy participate in PIT STOP:
– Municipality of Barletta / Italy (Head)
– Bari Chamber / Italy
– Municipality of Bidonto / Italy
– Municipality of Ioannina / Greece
– Chamber of Achaia / Greece
COMPETITION FOR IDEAS
As part of the project, a competition for intelligent business ideas was designed and implemented through an open invitation to participate to all interested start-uppers who had an idea related to a product or service of smart cities for the construction industry.
The content of the ideas should be characterized by innovation: the products, services, process and organizational model should be original – authentic, due to the abilities and skills of the candidate teams. In addition, they should bring about a positive change in the local social and economic system, in terms of the impact on employment and economic growth, directly or indirectly and in the medium term.
A total of 4 ideas were selected to proceed to the next stage which included:
- entering the incubator,
- participating in networking activities (participation in innovation events, visits to companies, etc.),
- highlighting investment opportunities,
- access to the incubator business network,
- communication and cooperation with leading companies in the market and the other benefits provided by the program.
Liofyllo was one of the four teams. https://youtu.be/ECCK2k_EKPw
MENTORING
Mentoring was, also, part of the project. Furthermore, a program was organized and implemented that included training, workshops, consulting, networking and personal guidance (mentoring program). The aim was the development four (4) business plans that will lead to a final product or service in relation to its technological needs. Construction Sector, which have been developed and emerged in a previous phase of the project but always centered on the objectives of the PitStop project.
A total of 83 hours of mentoring were performed by a total of 7 experienced mentors in the following sections:
- Value Proposition,
- Market Analysis – SWOT Analysis,
- The product / service,
- Financial tools,
- Legal forms of business, Copyright, Public procurement,
- Cost structures and
- Channels and way of promotion.
REWARDS
Following the completion of the personalized counseling program, the 4 groups received the following as a reward:
- Organizing an educational trip to the city of Trikala, as a Smart City of Greece with a tour of Smart City Services and facilities of the Municipality.
- Subscription Cloud services – Business google suite for 4 users (1 per group) for one year.
- Provision of Meazon Smart Meter Set 63A Three phase for 4 groups.
- Providing a package of services which included the Raspberry Pi 4 Model B 4GB Full Kit wireless and the Raspberry Pi Starter Learning Kit for the 4 groups.
More information at http://pitstop-lab.gr/ .