Start-up Weekend
About
Within the framework of WP5, our partners from Transform4Europe were invited to participate in the Start-up Weekend organised by the Kontaktstelle für Wissens- und Technologietransfer (Gründer-Campus Saar)! 3 students from the Estonian Academy of Arts (EKA) and 3 students from the University of Trieste flew to Saarland to take part in the event.
We are very happy to announce that 2 out of 3 winning teams featured students from the Alliance. The results are as follows:
1st place: Up2Skill: Knowledge exchange between different generations to counteract depression and loneliness; donations for a school in Africa. One student participated from EKA.
2nd place: Photos on Demand
3rd place: Laulu: Sustainable reusable tableware – inspired by the German bottle deposit system (2 students from Germany and 2 from the EKA)
Alliance participants also won a few special prizes:
Special Award: SLUSH Ticket: Maria (student from Trieste)
Special prize: Design Award of the EKA: Photos on Demand
Participating students also shared their thoughts about the event:
“I feel it was a good opportunity to see how a truly international team would work together and how it differs from working with people from my own university. While initially it was difficult to navigate through different working styles and ideas, in the end, the result was rewarding, and the diversity of perceptions helped create a satisfying outcome. During the process, more directions could be explored, and the questions asked were sometimes surprising but certainly interesting. Additionally, the support from the organising team was definitely a big help during the event and led us to an outcome that our team could be proud of.”
Aire Aasmäe (Design And Technology Futures, MA, EKA), member of the winning project “UP2SKILL”.
“There were relatively few people (about 50) attending Techstars Startup Weekend in Saarbrücken, which in my opinion was great, because people who were there connected perfectly with each other and even now, almost 2 weeks after the weekend, people still write to our group chats daily and I can see that everyone has become friends. During the weekend, it didn’t seem like we were separated from each other, but even though we were in different teams, working on different ideas, we still hopped from one room to another and asked how everyone was doing, offering help and also asking for help. Techstars Start-up Weekend was awesome and I got a lot of new valuable connections, mindsets and ideas.”
Harold Kiisler (Interior Architecture, BA, at EKA), member of the “Laulu” project, which took the 3rd place.
