Yerevan, Armenia

2-4 of October 2013

The workshop with BSOs’, BIs’ and local public authorities’ representatives Regional Business Incubators’ Network “Black Sea BI-Net” was organized in the period of 2-4 of October 2013 in Yerevan, Armenia.

The workshop was opened with welcoming speeches from Mr. Varazdat Karapetyan, Executive Director, Small and Medium Entrepreneurship Development National Centre of Armenia and from Ms. Amalia Hovsepyan Head of the Programme Administration Office Ministry of Economy of the Republic of Armenia.

First two days of the workshop were dedicated for presentations of Business incubation in Armenia and of information-analytical materials on business-incubation, international experience on BI and BI network development, public initiatives directed to BIs’ creation. Mr Bagrat Yengibaryan, Director at Enterprise Incubator Foundation had a presentation of Armenian business support infrastructure, such organizations as Microsoft Innovation Centre, Regional Mobile Applications Laboratory, also he mentioned that “incubators cooperation should mean a cooperation not just between incubators managers but between incubators tenants first of all”.

Ms Gohar Ghabuzyan, Project CoordinatoratSME DNCmade an introduction on the Methodology of Competency-based Economics through Formation of Enterprise (CEFE) and Mr Gurgen Paronyan, Director at GEDF presented the Gyumritechnopark.

On the third and the fourth day, participants had experienced the Business Café Method of workshop. The Business Café is an innovative facilitation tool to engage a large group of participants by realizing a single workshop. It is an extremely robust and effective format that stimulates the creativity and encourages the buy-in of a wide variety of stakeholders. The key idea behind The Business Café is to recreate the hospitable atmosphere of a sidewalk café where people can feel at ease and engage in informal conversation. At the end of this workshop participants enhanced their knowledge on BI incubators creation, BI networking and stakeholders’ roles in the networking. The discussions held within the workshop contributed to the creation of a Guide on How to create and operate a Business Incubator and a BI network available for BSOs and local authorities that will be published on-line.

At the event participated 35 participants, representatives of EU Delegation in the Republic of Armenia, central public authorities, SME stakeholders, Business Incubators, as well as the partners of the project:

$1-      Mr. Karen GEVORGYAN, Regional Project Coordinator, Small and Medium Entrepreneurship Development National Centre of Armenia (SMEDNC), Armenia;

$1-      Mrs. Oxana PALADICIUC, Project Manager, Organization for Small and Medium Enterprises Sector Development (ODIMM), Republic of Moldova;

$1-      Mrs.  Merve GUVEN, Regional Project Coordinator, Middle Black Sea Development Agency (OKA), Turkey;

$1-      Mr. Nikolaos PETROPOULOS, Regional Project Coordinator, European Regional Framework for Co-operation (ERFC), Greece;

$1-      Mrs. Elena CARDAS, Regional Project Coordinator, association of Cross Border Cooperation “Lower Danube Euroregion” (ACT EDJ), Romania; 

$1-      Mrs. Anna NIKITENKO, Regional Fund for Support of the Entrepreneurship of Zaporozhe region (RFSE), Ukraine.

The Black Sea BI-Net project is financed from the European Neighbourhood and Partnership Instrument (ENPI) and from the Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance (IPA), in the framework of the Joint Operational Programme for the Black Sea Basin.