IntEntSem14: Day 5 – Project presentations, inspirational talk and seminar finale

Preparations and planning make the difference that make the difference! Friday before lunch every team presented the project they had been working with on stage in Expectrum.

The Västerås based company SmartShake did an inspirational talk for the students before we presented the winning team of IntEntSem14. SmartShake has won several prices and managed to go international very quickly.

All the teams that presented showed that they had learned a great deal during the week and they also incorporated what they learned in the workshops to their presentations, i.e. the Business Model Canvas. The winning team however presented a well done market research, local implementation as well as strategic partners for their projects which made the coaches convinced.

The winning team: Ilze (Sweden), Fabien (France), Thibault (Belgium), Nyanyui (France) and Julia (Germany, not in the picture).

Diplomas as well as an evaluation form of the week will be e-mailed to every participant. Next year the International Entrepreneurial Seminar will be held in Dunkerque, France. We look forward to meeting a new bunch of curious students there!

Keep up your entrepreneurial spirit – we look forward to following your stories.

Thank you
/Swedish Project Group
Johan, Amanda, Sabina and Marius

IntEntSem14: Day 4 – pitches, storyboarding and a visit to Venture Cup

What is the most important things to think about when you give an elevator pitch about your business idea? What would your business model look like if you made a storyboard of it? Last day of intensive conceptualization gave the participants a lot to think about.

Long working days and late salsa nights are beginning to take out its rights on our entrepreneurial crowd but the energy and enthusiasm is still very high. The lectures of day four focused on oral and visual presentations. PhD in Innovation and Design Anders Wikström from Mälardalen University gave an interesting perspective with his method storyboarding.

In the evening we took the bus to Stockholm to experience  the region final of the business plan competition Venture Cup East.
The students took the chance to mingle with swedish entrepreneurs, start-ups and venture capitalists before the ceremony started. Though most of the ceremony was mostly in swedish it was inspireing to watch “elite entrepreneurs” give their one minute pitches!

Only one day to go now. Tomorrow is the big finale where the students get to present the projects they have been working with during the week.

Stay tuned!
/Amanda, Swedish Project Group

IntEntSem14: Day 3 – Marketing, numbers and costumers

Wednesday was all about doing your math and getting out there to figure out the needs of the costumer.

Some energetic early birds started the third day of IntEntSem at the fitness center ACTIC Västerås City with a spinning class and some gym training. A perfect way to get your energy levels pumped up to handle the rest of the day! The spinning participants also encountered the Activio System, which is a swedish innovation (from a former KTH student) that enables you to track your heart rate live during the class.

The massive lecture schedule started with marketing and sales and moved on to finance and market research. The students continued working with their canvas models, focusing on the cost structures.

In the afternoon we got a visit from local television SVT Västmanlandsnytt who interviewed some of the students of IntEntSem14 about the learnings so far. Look at the clip here.

Many of the students got really helpful feedback on their business ideas and completely started over with the konceptualisation. You can not enough stress the importance of getting out their early in order to be able to evaluate your product at an early stage. Or as Steve Blank use to put it “Get out of the building!”.

Keep prototyping and failing fast in order to reach success!
/Amanda, Swedish Project Group

IntEntSem14: Day 2 – Brainstorming, BMC and LUNCH BEAT

The teamspirit is high in the teams and the students are eager to learn more entrepreneurial skills to help them create their projects. Day 2 was quite knowledge heavy but also offered a welcomed dancing break.

Day 2 we spent on Campus Eskilstuna, since Mälardalen University is located in two cities and we wanted to show them both. A 40 minute bus ride away. Most of the education programmes in Innovation, Design and Technology is located at Campus Eskilstuna.
The day started with a brainstorming session and then continued with lectures and workshops on the different parts of the Business Model Canvas. One of the lecturers was Johannes Löfgren who is a university student himself and also an entrepreneur who took help from IDÉLAB Business Incubator to start his company and he also participated in our Idea Competition.

Tuesday lunch was nothing like your regular lunch since we had arranged a LUNCH BEAT. A one hour DJ-set and a fresh meal to eat on the go. One hour of intensive disco dancing was perfect to get pumped up for more business modelling!

The FIKA has also been a total success! Every fika has a different host and so far we tried the traditional swedish fika with coffee and cinnamon buns, belgian beer and chocolate and catalan ‘pan amb tomate’ with ham, sardelles and olive oil. Fika breaks are important to keep the energy level high during our intensive working days and another good aspect of fika is that many great ideas usually come up when people have time to talk informally with each other.

In the evening we walked down to Munktell Science Park in the old Munktell town in Eskilstuna. There we got a nice dinner and a BMC-challenge from Mikael Johnsson who told the story of the start up Wiggystyle. The students listened closely and gave feedback on what could be improved in the business model.

Work hard, play hard!
/Amanda, Swedish Project Group

IntEntSem14: Day 1 – Welcoming, PLS, teambuilding and Frösåker Sauna Conference

What’s your passion, competence and experience? Wich role do you take in a team? The first day of IntEntSem was all about getting the “blissification” high, raise teamspirit, get to know each other and set challenging goals.

After a good nights sleep and a steady continental breakfast at Hotel Västerås in the city it was time for a walk to Mälardalens University to get things started. Project Managers Johan and Amanda opened the 2014 seminar together with Dean of School Thomas Wahl (Mälardalen University, School of Economics, Society and Business).

Both the coaches and the participating student had prepared Pecha Kucha presentations to give a picture of themselves and we also did some teambuilding tasks to get the new groups together. Besides the teambuilding there was also a workshop on personal leadership in where the students got to explore themselves, their dreams and goals. Questions like “what do you value most in your life” was raised.

In the evening we went to Frösåkers Brygga, a beautiful place in the countryside of Västerås with a viking history.

See more pictures on Instagram.com/idelab and don’t forget about the Insta Challenge. Present your best pictures from this week with #intentsem. Winner is announced on friday!

Thank you for a wonderful start of IntEntSem 2014!
/Swedish Project Group

See you in a few days!

It has almost come down to the start of our seminar. We´re excited!

Hotel website and location is HERE. We´ll be there in the evening and welcoming a few of you. Don´t worry about opening hours. You will see a sign outside explaining how to enter.

Make sure to be on time. It starts at 9 AM on Monday morning!

Homework Video!

A little bit over one month left before it all starts!

Because of that, our Project Manager Johan Nyström recorded himself welcoming you here and leaving you with some information. We hope this is appreciated, watch it below!

Things to be completed according to the video:

1. Belbin test (completed 15^th of april)
2. Pecha kucha (completed 15^th of april)
3. Info about sweden (completed before seminar)
4. Watch dragons den (completed before seminar)
5. Bring your own fika (completed before seminar)
6. The business model canvas (completed before seminar)

The things to complete are listed above. Piece of cake, right!?

We´ll see you soon, have a great day!

Student Profiles + Hotel

Good morning world!

Since the meetup in Sweden with coaches, all 36 students have now been selected to be a part of this seminar, congratulations once again! We have sent out information to your coaches that you´ll have to provide contact information and fill in your own profile.

Second part of your own profile:
1. Your top 3 skills within entrepreneurship? (marketing, programming etc.).
2. Your top 3 interests? (soccer, guitar playing, relaxing).
3. Your top 3 roles? (Belbin Team Roles).

The last one will be completed by April 28th so wait with that one for now. The reason for these questions is to be more interactive with one another. We are sure many of you have same interests or will learn from different ones but you might not ask? This will be clearly visible so you can see what type of other students you´re there with!

Last but not least, the picture below is right outside Hotel Västerås where you´ll be staying. In the middle of Västerås City, close to everything and just a 5 min walk to the university!

MEETUP in Sweden

Good day people!

During the 28-29th of February, coaches from the different universities met up to discuss among many things; the schedule program, our responsibilities, budget and workshops. We have seen a couple of you participating and we think that this seminar will be legendary! We have control and you better be prepared for an intense week with a lot of responsibility, new friends and inspiration!

We are happy to announce some of the things:
– TEDx event with inspirational talks.
– Visit to Stockholm for a big event.
– Presenting (pitching) your ideas for entrepreneurs.
– Work with a Busines Model Canvas model.
– Try out some Swedish Fika!

We would like to congratulate all students that has been selected from our partner universities to be a part of this! Keep yourself updated with information and be prepared for a list of things to do before you come here. More information in the end of February!

All the best, see you in 3,5 months!

Apply now!

Soon it´s christmas and a new year to come, 2014! This year will consist of many new adventures and one of them could be the most memorable one, IntEntSem14! Here are five reasons to apply:

1. You will dive into the cultural mix of people and make new friends!
2. You will be affected, positively to become, and think like an entrepreneur!
3. You will learn more about yourself, strengths and weaknesses!
4. You will get a “hands on” and experimental experience!
5. You will develop your social skills and English language speaking!

There you have it! Make sure to apply now by contacting the one responsible at one of our partner universities, good luck and we hope too meet you next year in Sweden!