GROWING AND PROSPERING THE ENTREPRENEURSHIP ECOSYSTEM IN ANKARA TO INCREASE YOUNG EMPLOYMENT TECHNICAL SUPPORT PROJECT

"The Closing Conference and Investor Matchmaking" (Closing conference for short) event will be held in ATO Congresium Ankara on the 16th of October 2017, with the participation of numerous entrepreneurs, start-ups, ecosystem actors and potential investors.The Closing conference is held as part of the EU co-funded project "Growing and Prospering the Entrepreneurship Ecosystem in Ankara to Increase Young Employment- TRH1.2ADA/P-01", under Activity 1.2.1 Opening and Closing conferences. The project is being implemented since June 28 2016 and will close on October 27 2017. 

The Closing conference has the objective not only of presenting the final results of the project to the various stakeholders and other Ankara entrepreneurship ecosystem actors, but also to provide an ideal forum for selected entrepreneurs and start-ups in Ankara to meet support institutions, other start-ups, and especially potential investors. The Closing conference will kick-off with a series of speakers and conferences in the Main Hall; starting with the Minister of Development, the Governor of Ankara region, the Secretary General of the Ankara Development Agency, representatives of the Ministry of Labour and Social Security and the EU Delegation to Turkey, among other authorities. The project Team leader will present the key results and outputs of the project, accompanied later stage by other Key Experts of the TA team and by the key coordinators of the Ankara Development Agency as Beneficiary and the Ministry of Labour and Social Security as Contracting authority. The Secretary General of the Agency will announce then the official opening of the Entrepreneurship Development Centre (EDC, denominated TechAnkara Girisimcilik Merkezi), which is Result 2 of the project. All output indicators of trained and mentored entrepreneurs, commercialised innovations, and trained for international certifications, visibility outputs and competition, have been achieved or surpassed in spite of the short 16-month implementation period.

After these introductory speeches the stands of 100 selected entrepreneurs will be declared officially open; these entrepreneurs and the potential investors and experts meetings are called the "Project market" (Proje Pazari) as in the past years, and the participants will engage with the entrepreneurs and their prototypes and products. In parallel, a group of selected potential investors from Turkey and some foreign experts will meet in "short assessment meetings" with selected entrepreneurs, to get a better understanding of their products, teams and potential for investment (angel investors and formal venture funds). These meetings are organised according to the expertise and profile of the investors and the entrepreneurs, and have proven extremely useful in the past to trigger investment preparedness by the entrepreneurs and foster real investment in selected start-ups. 

Networking and specific meetings are also organised in VIP rooms for key investors and invited representatives of corporate venture and innovation units of larger firms, which as in the rest of the world are increasingly interested in supporting and investment in state-of-the-art ventures which allow them to innovate and maintain their technological leadership. The lunch break will also allow plenty of networking opportunities and investor and networking meeting will continue to provide opportunities for entrepreneurs and for the ecosystem actors to collaborate further.  

Next, a short award ceremony for the winners of the Competition (Activity 1.8 of the project) will be held, where the authorities will give them as a prize an "acceleration internship" in Ireland during 7 days; other prizes from sponsors will also be awarded as confirmed to other entrepreneurs.

Finally a keynote speaker in the Main Hall again will present some future trends and conclusions on how to continue strengthening the entrepreneurship ecosystem and foster qualified and permanent employment and self-employment. Final speeches by the authorities will then close the conference, and the participants will proceed to a final coffee and snacks before departing."