Did you know that chewing gum contains plastic, oil and many chemical additives? Does not sound too healthy, right? Luckily there is a solution. In the Interreg CENTRAL EUROPE project CERIecon, two young, inspired ladies started an entrepreneurial journey to launch their start-up: ‘Alpengummi’ by developing a ‘natural chewing gum’ that only uses natural ingredients like bee wax and tree resin.

Alpengummi received the opportunity to be trained and coached in one of CERIecon’s Playparks. But what exactly is a Playpark? CERIecon started back in 2016 to set up regional innovation ecosystems in seven central Europe regions, which were named Playparks. Together, these regional innovation ecosystems in Cracow (PL), Bratislava (SK), Vienna (AT), Brno (CZ), Stuttgart (DE), Verona (IT) and Rijeka (HR) form one transnational network. This network interlinks the regional Playparks in order to improve international skills and to emphasize the project’s transnational character. The original aim of the CERIecon project was to contribute to a change in the way entrepreneurs are inspired, trained and supported. Now, that CERIecon has ended, the partnership is convinced that the project has achieved a lot. More than 150 business ideas of start-ups/young SMEs - amongst them Alpengummi - have been trained according to the innovative approach of the Playpark methodology which was developed at the regional Playparks. You might ask yourself now: ‘Isn’t this just another start-up incubator?’

The answer is no. Clearly, CERIecon was and is more. When CERIecon was developed, we realised that many young people with brilliant ideas – who could contribute considerably to make cities and regions in central Europe better places to work and live – had a limited entrepreneurial culture, mind-set as well as entrepreneurial skills and competences. Often, their business idea was just a very early stage idea which needed support and help to grow; but there was no adequate place where these young start-ups/SMEs could find support for their idea, where they could ‘play’ with it in an experimental and supported way.

CERIecon was built to close this gap. Within the project, the partnership wanted to offer not only coaching and support to the young entrepreneurs but to help them to develop – or even to find – their business idea through our ‘early bird approach’. We wanted to provide them an ecosystem where their ideas could grow just like tender little plants. After three years of project implementation there are more success stories than just the one from Alpengummi. CERIecon supported many diverse and innovative business ideas: a wheelchair swing, a lifesaving bracelet, fertiliser made out of coffee grounds or a programming school for people with migrant backgrounds are only some of the many examples. And Alpengummi? They started selling their ‘natural chewing gum’ in Austrian supermarkets in May 2019.