I.E.C.T. Summer school on Entrepreneurship 2024

During the seven days, the focus is on the development of commercialisation strategies for research and technology ideas and projects. For this purpose, we bring serial entrepreneurs from all over the world to Tyrol, who pass on their experience to the participants in keynote sessions. In the mentoring sessions, the content learned is then applied to the participants' own ideas and tested in discussions with experts during the 1-to-1 clinics.

The topics during the Summer School range from leadership and market research to business model and financing to selling your idea and pitch training. These are all topics that you have to deal with when setting up a company in order to successfully commercialise an idea.

During the Summer School, a large number of investors, business angels, corporates and experts will be on site to help with their know-how and network.

The Summer School is an intensive programme that demands your full attention for seven days.

• Keynote Session: Successful serial entrepreneurs and experts will give an insight into the topic of the day in the keynote session, report from practice and provide background knowledge and insights. Participants will not only benefit from the speaker's experience, but can also apply the newly acquired knowledge to their own ideas right afterwards with mentors and experts.
• Workshops: The workshops will cover topics where interactive implementation in a large group makes sense. Similar to the keynote sessions, the workshop starts with input from serial entrepreneurs and experts and is then underpinned with tools and techniques to support the transfer to your own idea.
• Mentor Session: The Mentor Sessions allow participants to work intensively on their idea with an experienced expert in small groups. All the content taught during the keynote sessions and workshops is translated to the participants' own business with support in the mentor sessions. The groups remain the same over the duration of the Summer School in order to give the mentors the opportunity to deal with the participants' ideas in detail. The composition of the groups is based on the industry and the phase the idea is in, as well as the greatest peer learning benefit. In addition, each mentor is assisted by a facilitator who supports the participants in the various tasks, such as market research
• One-to-One Clinics: Individual sessions with lawyers, accountants, technicians, IP experts and many more take place during the programme to clarify specific questions for the next steps towards a successful start-up or commercialisation. The different topics for the 1-to-1 clinics are legal, business development and pitch training.
• Demo Day: At the end of the Summer School, each participant presents their idea to investors and business angels. The whole thing takes place in a "safe environment", i.e. mistakes can and should be made and feedback asked for, so that when it really comes to investment or funding, they can fall back on what they have learned. The jury will comment on the ideas, and after the Summer School the collected feedback will be sent out to the participants.
• Networking Events: The networking events that take place during the evenings allow participants to discuss their ideas with fellow contributors, such as high-profile entrepreneurs, investors and business people, in a relaxed atmosphere, to make contacts and to build the network necessary for successful implementation.