26th November 2021 in the halls of Technology Innovation Centre Virovitica, the final Demo Day of the first generation of the ViP Start-up network was held, which at the same time was also the final part of the project „Student Start-up Incubator “. The entire project was realized by the University of Applied Sciences in Virovitica, Virovitica-Podravina county and the Network of Entrepreneurial Incubators VPC.
The winners of this year’s „Student Start-up Incubator“ were students from the study programme Management of Small- and Middle-sized Enterprises, Sara Patricia Rozman and Matea Barnaki. They had captivated the judges with their idea „Express Print“ and rightfully earned first place in the student business idea category and won the prize of od 50.000 kunas.
„Student Start-up Incubator“ project consisted of students of 1st year graduate study programme Management of Small- and Middle-size Enterprises developing their business ideas and creating business plans. Students under the mentorship of the University’s teachers and in their regular courses develop business ideas and create business plans which are plausible and represent a basis for them to start their own entrepreneurial venture. Students whose entrepreneurial idea and business plan is rated as the best have the possibility of starting their own entrepreneurial venture by opening a company with headquarters in one of the entrepreneurial incubators in the Virovitica-Podravina county area. Furthermore, the best entrepreneurial ideas is awarded with 50.000 kunas.
Unfortunately, there was only one reward, while multiple groups of students participated in the competition with very quality business ideas, for whom we can only hope that they will, even without this reward, find their way to commercialisation and entering the market in the form of new entrepreneurial ventures.
The University of Applied Sciences in Virovitica has been for the last couple of years encouraging students to develop their own entrepreneurial ideas with the goal of promoting entrepreneurship and developing entrepreneurial skills. By developing an entrepreneurial ecosystem at the University, individuals are being educated who will eventually become competent and professional people who will contribute to the strengthening of the economy, not only on a local, but also on a state level. This is how the main activity of the University is developed further, which is without a doubt a prerequisite for a stable and continuous economic development of the entire community.