Report for British Council, Tbilisi Office Creative Sparks Program May 26th, 2019

Business Incubator (Art Incubator) As one of the starting points for the project, Business Incubator was established at the Tbilisi Creative Center, which hosted start-up companies in the creative industry. Besides office space, computers and wi-fi, business incubator also provided for the beneficiaries various workshops, skill-up sessions and consultation upon request. In total, we received up to 250 participants for the period of 5 months, with a balance of 70:30, F/M. Photo & media: ● Event: https://bit.ly/2JWXZDc ● https://bit.ly/2HqRffj ● https://bit.ly/2w9SqJL ● https://bit.ly/2VNLcKP ● https://bit.ly/2Hu7tVe ● https://bit.ly/2LUymFZ ● https://bit.ly/2EiT7ow ● https://bit.ly/2HxWEzW ● https://bit.ly/2VwmvNO ● https://bit.ly/2VASTif ● https://bit.ly/2WdGm8W ● https://bit.ly/2WyNoSx ● https://bit.ly/2VQnA7t ● https://bit.ly/2Wh4Jm5 ● https://bit.ly/2VUJyqR

Business Clinic Within the frame of Art incubator at the Kharvasla Creative Center, Business Clinic, offered its participants to receive one-to-one advice from professional in their field; participants were able to receive advice on their startup idea, its viability and development. Furthermore, those participants in need to develop their business ideas,business clinic encouraged services to teach digital skills, building App, website and other. Since May 26th, the clinic provided support for 144 students & young entrepreneurs over the course of 18 meetings(68 male, 76 female).

The service was for 30 minutes each session, and will be provided until the end of the project upon request. Photo & media: Event: https://bit.ly/2w7zsDp https://bit.ly/2WVMMqq https://bit.ly/2w6wFdI http://bit.ly/2JvLrmS http://bit.ly/30vXztu

Introduction Sessions and Enterprise Skills Sessions - Training and Upskilling The “Idea Hub” opened regularly at the Creative Center in the format of workshop series and offered students and young entrepreneurs to learn technologies and IT skills to support their art & business.They had an opportunity to get acquainted with basic design and media production skills, app & website development, 3D printing & development. Participants had access a fully kitted workspace and edit suite with state of the art software, media toolkits and equipment, which allowed them students to work on their creative, production and design projects. Idea Hub also hosted series of entrepreneurship workshops that aimed to inspire interest in arts, technology and entrepreneurship as well as to teach startup companies accommodated at the business incubator to improve their skills on how to commercialise their ideas and grow their companies. For this module, BTU has used the material provided by Henley Business school during the visit.

In total, we received 224 participants for 8 different workshops (77 male, 147 female). It is noteworthy that student volunteers were helpful to assists with organization of the meetings as well as the any other support necessary for beneficiaries. Photo & media: Event: http://bit.ly/2HNEA50 http://bit.ly/2QfrPEi http://bit.ly/2WVJa7D

Spring Bootcamp A week long course was offered to pre-selected students and young entrepreneurs to help them improve and develop their startup ideas. Not all but, most of the boot camp participants were concentrated on developing digital solutions to creative sectors. Some of the topics discussed during the bootcamp included but was not limited to: ● How to start business; ● How to set up a company; ● How to improve personal skills and dare to be successful; ● How to get funding for your business, etc.

All participants (10 teams, 1-3 members each, 13 male, 6 female) were also preparing to take part in Ideafest & Best Startup Competition. They were also the ones selected for Pitching Competition. Photo & media: Event: http://bit.ly/2WhTfPa http://bit.ly/2Qeek7K http://bit.ly/2YHQ3Kv

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Best Startup Competition & Ideafest This is the final part of the project in support of creative industry in Georgia. The competition was divided into 2 days; Demo day was an opportunity for students and young entrepreneurs (30 teams, 2-4 members each) who have completed at least of Creative Sparks activity to showcase their creative idea. In accordance with the program criteria, judges selected 10 teams that were moved to the final day of the competition - Best Startup Competition & Ideafest. 1st place winner, for building innovative product got cash prize and a pitching opportunity at the panel of experts, to get funding for prototyping their product. Another winner was the startup that showed the most progress over the last few months and in particular has built revenues and customer traction. ( Prizes for Best Startup & Best Innovation) Others received cash and other prizes from University guests. This was an opportunity for participants to prepare for the Student Enterprise Award “Video Pitch” Competition. 10 teams recorded a video for the competition and will take part in it. Throughout the event, every participant of Creative Sparks program had an opportunity to showcase their product/service to the public at the Creative Center. Creative industry stakeholders were welcome to share their knowledge and develop commercial partnerships. Additionally, the day was an opportunity for participants to network and socialize with industry experts, investors and

potential partners. Winner of the competition for the Best Startup is digital AR company, AReal, whose product is already integrated in several museums. We received 30 teams for first day as participants, 10 for the final day; besides, 104 guests were invited to the event from creative industries.

Pitching videos: Photo & media: Event: http://bit.ly/2VXL0sx Ambebi.ge Palitra Media FB post English Learning Programme The English channel and the General English online course were made available via the Educational Hub BTU. Although registration numbers were high, number of people who completed the course

for the English ‘Select’ accounted very low. Until the end of July, BTU team will continue to work with the students and young entrepreneurs involved in the project to finish up the program. Note: We have identified several reasons for that, including technical difficulties on the platform side, and lack of ability to get involved with distance learning in Georgia. As discussed among other participants of the project, we also believe that it is important to integrate a teacher-facilitator to the program participants at least at the beginning; this could encourage participants not to give up right away, to get acquainted with the product and be prepared to continue learning it independently.