European Innovation Academy

I would say, "be ready for some hard work during these 3 weeks, but don't forget to have fun, also!"

I think the key to fully experience what the Entrepreneurship and Innovation Summer Program in Portugal has to offer is to both stay on track with developing your start-up idea and finding the time to mingle with friends and other participants. Of course, make sure to explore the beautiful city of Lisbon and its surroundings!

Mornings (9AM – 12nn) at EIA are usually dedicated to different lectures on entrepreneurship and business creation, key-note speeches from world-leading experts from different fields, followed by lunch break and subsequent independent work on your start-up idea in your group of five. You can work on it with or without mentor support as they change depending on which particular task is your team working on at that given moment.

Of course, there is also a social program for the participants – mingling events, parties, football matches, and the likes. Weekends are free from official program activities, so you can either continue working on your start-up, or choose to take a trip to Sintra or Lisbon, or simply enjoy your free time on one of the nearby beaches. All the options are, in my eyes, equally awesome!

I cannot say I was scared to go abroad to do such "few-weeks-lasting" project, as I've already done a number of international work-camps and exchanges before. Neither did I fear going to Portugal in general, as people there are incredibly friendly and welcoming, and the country itself is absolutely gorgeous and 100% worth visiting.

However, I was a bit concerned about working with four complete strangers (at the beginning, at least), because, when it comes to developing a start-up into a viable company/enterprise, we all had different thoughts and opinions on HOW to do this exactly.

So, for me, finding compromises with my team mates, as well as learning things from completely new fields, were the "biggest challenges". I loved the whole experience, though!

I strongly believe that this program is an incredible opportunity for young motivated professionals coming from completely different backgrounds, with diverse sets of skills and competencies, to learn "all you need to know" about start-ups in just 3 weeks, and to learn it from first-class experts and successful entrepreneurs in a vibrant, international start-up environment. These three weeks were definitely one of the best I've had in my life, and I couldn't recommend this program more!

A lot! Honestly. Creating content for such an unique summer school has been beyond my dreams and I've never believed that I would have opportunity to meet top experts in their fields whom I have the honor to invite to participate as mentors or speakers.

Also, I'm finding new challenges in finding even more awesome ways to approach to the startup building and of course, hereby can introduce my way of thinking and seeing entrepreneurship to our ambitious and curious participants.

It is rather a sum of lots of great stories - that EIA has literally changed students lives and they have gained contacts they can use to convert their ongoing projects into success stories. I'm lucky to stay in touch with students after every EIA program and recognize the same pattern of testimonials from every student.

EIA edition in Shenzhen, China. We are happy to organize the newest version in Asia in 2018 and every new location in EIA will grow the excitement. Working with local companies in order to create the go-to-market plan for our startups in the program is fascinating. It is not something we have done in Europe in our previous editions.

Our uniqueness is especially visible in the effort and passion everyone puts into the program. The organizing team is coming up with bunch of new ideas to implement in the upcoming editions, our mentors are proactively suggesting us the newest tools and technologies to use and our speakers are taking care of changing the keynote program more interactive each year. The joint dedication of knowledge, time and love to this program is spectacular.

Growing EIA ambassadors out of our programs, who honestly and independently want to spread the word about their positive and unique experience in the program. Good content in media and social network is obviously important, but the best way to understand the goals & ambitions in the program and the outcome is to talk to the participants in previous editions. I'm truly happy that EIA Alumni network is carrying the opportunity with them to introduce the program in their point of view to the potential participants.