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Coworking Entrepreneurship Centre and Incubator - KIKŠTARTER
Published on 04 December 2018
Slovenia
Vzhodna Slovenija
This is the good practice's implementation level. It can be national, regional or local.
About this good practice
KIKŠTARTER Kamnik arose from the initiative of Youth Center Kotlovnica which together with local stakeholders and Technology park Ljubljana recognized the need to motivate and stimulate entrepreneurial ideas of Kamnik's youth. The initiative also involved Kamnik Municipality and Rudolf Maister School. Initiative was also approached by Kamnik entrepreneurs, joined in the Enterpreneurship club. The first activities were implemented in January of 2014 with first discussions, development of the co-working idea and networking activities between the municipality, the entrepreneurs, Youth Centre, High school and Ljubljana Technology Park. In 2014 KIKŠTARTER had an exchange volunteer program, where the idea was elaborated on, as well as motivation workshops targeting potential and young entrepreneurs. In 2015, they provided the physical location and enabled numerous inhabitants, entrepreneurs and talents from Kamnik to work on their business idea, have a space to work and develop as well as to network. Today KIKŠTARTER offers work space (680 m2 – 8 tables in common co-working space,13 offices 1 conference room,1 laboratory, a reading corner with professional literature, 1 Meeting Room, Block space for socializing, Lecture, Garden with outdoor co-working space) and strong community. The main innovation KIKŠTARTER did is a social innovation where they recognised the interest of many relevant stakeholders and offered them almost free platform to work at.
Expert opinion
KIKŠTARTER is a co-working space and start-up incubator. The initiative was structured around a quadruple helix arrangement that involved a youth centre, the technology park of Ljubljana, the Municipality, a school, and entrepreneurs. KIKŠTARTER offers a Good Practice on how rural and peri-urban towns can participate in the knowledge economy through the creation of spaces to promote entrepreneurship.
Suggestions for potential Good Practice transfer:
-The creation of a space like KIKŠTARTER to promote entrepreneurship is more relevant for towns with 10,000 to 30,000 inhabitants that do not already possess such innovation infrastructure.
-As illustrated by KIKŠTARTER, quadruple helix arrangements are a good way to rally local actors around a common vision for the town.
-Spaces like this could include, spaces for fabrication, 3-D workshops, FabLabs, and Makerspace, as lower rents in rural and peri-urban towns offer a competitive advantage for setting such relatively large fabrication spaces for entrepreneurs.
Suggestions for potential Good Practice transfer:
-The creation of a space like KIKŠTARTER to promote entrepreneurship is more relevant for towns with 10,000 to 30,000 inhabitants that do not already possess such innovation infrastructure.
-As illustrated by KIKŠTARTER, quadruple helix arrangements are a good way to rally local actors around a common vision for the town.
-Spaces like this could include, spaces for fabrication, 3-D workshops, FabLabs, and Makerspace, as lower rents in rural and peri-urban towns offer a competitive advantage for setting such relatively large fabrication spaces for entrepreneurs.
Works at
Interreg Europe Policy Learning Platform
Resources needed
When starting they have available only few thousand EUR. The Municipality provides part of the funding for the operations and program of KIKŠTARTER (yearly call around 15.000 EUR). KIKŠTARTER also receives contributions from local entrepreneurs joined in the Business club, and many volunteer hours.
Evidence of success
Physically hosting more than 20 SMEs/groups, and 30 individuals. KIKŠTARTER won the national competition and became a finalist for the European award for promoting entrepreneurship (for "Improving the business environment"). The initiative has become recognized as a GP example of economic recovery in the post-industrial environments, small towns that do not have the critical mass for the development of high-tech economy.
Potential for learning or transfer
This GP is particularly interesting, because they understand the needs of the local population in detail. To learn the importance of bottom up approach to include all relevant stakeholders. It is transferable to other environments, as we are not talking about duplicating the prescribed solutions and patterns but about applying the proven methods and tools to understand the local potential and particular the needs and then to develop solutions based on that. The whole model of approach can be replicated in other regions, if there is a case of a small Municipality or town (local environment with strong community) that do not have the critical mass for the development of high-tech economy.
Further information
Website
Good practice owner
You can contact the good practice owner below for more detailed information.
Organisation
KIKŠTARTER - Matjaž Jug ([email protected])
Slovenia
Vzhodna Slovenija
Contact
Project manager