CE-Connector Kick-off Meeting
23-24 May, Liberec, Czechia

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The official CE-Connector Kick-off Meeting was held in order to establish cooperation among the gathered project partners. Attending the event were 15 participants representing a total of 8 organizations.

The meeting objective was to successfully establish a working framework, distribute roles and responsibilites, as well as lay the foundation of a friendly working environment - all in the quest to jump-start the CE-Connector project. The event took place over the course of two days, between the 23-24 of May in the beautiful city of Liberec, Czechia. Project Partners had the oportunity to present their project ideas in front of their colleagues. 

Ms. Tina Igličar Kubalik welcomed and introduced project partners. She also introduced the meeting agenda and plan of work for the 2 upcoming days. All partners presented themselves shortly and named their motivation for participating in the project.

Jan Kubalík introduced DEX Innovation Centre and how the Ce-Connector project was created. The main project idea is to fill in the gap between 3F financing and VC which is 75.000 – 1.000.000 €. 1,5 year ago, when the project was facilitated, this gap was bigger than now; BAs are willing to invest more than before, while VCs are already investing also lower amounts. However, the problem (the gap) still exists;

Jan from DEXIC presented WPT1. He mentioned that it crucial to understand right from the outset what the starting point was, namely– a strategic framework. WPT1's goal is to develop a Strategy and 2 key Tools of the project. Jan presented WP structure, its activities, deliverables and main Outputs. 

Sieglinde and Tamara from AEN presented WPT2, its goals, outputs ad time lines for each output / deliverable. They also pointed out, that all partners should work on this WP to reach the best results in this project.

They also presented target groups – the main target group are Business Angels, then Regional Public Authority, National Public Authority, Sectoral Agency, Interest groups incl. NGOs, Business support organisations. 

WP Communication was presented by CWB Connect. Main rules of publicity in Interreg CENTRAL EUROPE were presented and pointed out. Proper and effective communication can improve the position of the project in the market. The communication might need to be adjusted to fit the local needs of each country. 

Several main target groups were named, most notably: Business Angels (BA), Start-ups / SMEs, Regional Public Authorities, National Public Authorities, Sectoral Agencies, Interest Groups (incl. NGO’s) and Business support Organisations. 

Wrapping up, Ms. Tina Igličar Kubalik from DEX IC introduced WP1 – Project Management structure and related deliverables. Each partner was asked to appoint their partner level project team + steering committee member based on a written request of the LP.