NICE Summer Virtual Student Conference 2020

PROGRAMME

10:00 CEST (9:00 BST)

Introduction

10:00 - 10:10 CEST
9:00 - 9:10 BST

10:15 CEST (9:15 BST)

Workshop 1: The Value Proposition

10:15 - 11:00 CEST
9:15 - 10:00 BST by Jesús Rivas (University of Salamanca) “During this workshop, students will know what a Value Proposition is and how a company can create Value for their customers.”

Workshop 2: Taster “Online Facilitated Dialogue session”

10:15 - 11:00 CEST
9:15 - 10:00 BST by UNICollaboration Facilitation team “In these sessions participants will experience what an OFD feels like and try out a couple of fun, light-hearted activities used to bring participants together online and prepare them for asynchronous collaboration over a number of weeks, which is something university tutors may ask them to do during their studies, especially at a time when Covid is making physical mobilities impossible.”

11:00 CEST (10:00 BST)

Workshop 3: Intercultural leadership

11:00 - 11:45 CEST
10:00 - 10:45 BST by Guido de Wilde (University of Amsterdam) “Don’t take a one-size-fits all approach to leadership. Choose the leadership style that maximizes your effectiveness in a given situation.”

11:45 CEST (10:45 BST)

Break

12:00 CEST (11:00 BST)

Workshop 4: Networking

12:00 - 12:45 CEST
11:00 - 11:45 BST by Meike Heeremans (University of Amsterdam) “Networking is one of the most effective strategies when searching for a job. Find your own style in connecting with people and ask them to think along with you. “

Workshop 5: Building Accessible, Inclusive, and Equal Societies

12:00 - 12:45 CEST
11:00 - 11:45 BST by Lindsey Pamlanye (University College Dublin) “A conversation about barriers to participation and how individuals can contribute to dismantling oppression in day to day life."

13:00 CEST (12:00 BST)

Workshop 6: Introduction to successful presentations

13:00 - 13:45 CEST
12:00 - 12:45 BST by Elisabetta Pavan (University of Padova) “The aim of the workshop is to explain the linguistic aspects of communicaction and public speaking.”

13:45 CEST (12:45 BST)

Lunch time

15:00 CEST (14:00 BST)

Workshop 7: Work effectively in virtual teams

15:00 - 16:30 CEST
14:00 - 15:30 BST by Linda Yang (University College Dublin)

10:00 CEST (9:00 BST)

Workshop 8: Morning Mobilization

10:00 - 10:30 CEST
9:00 - 9:30 BST by Jan Hartling (University of Göttingen) “In this workshop you have the opportunity to mobilize your body, focus and increase your physical well-being with 3-4 guided simple exercises to start the day with a fresh spirit.”

Workshop 9: Boost your Resilience

10:00 - 10:45 CEST
9:00 - 9:45 BST by Meike Heeremans (University of Amsterdam) “Delve deeper into your ability to be resilient, how to deal with adversity in uncertain times. Learn how to reinforce your resilience with storyboarding and the power of emotions.”

Break

11:00 CEST (10:00 BST)

Workshop 10: Being brave

11:00 - 11:45 CEST
10:00 - 10:45 BST by Guido de Wilde (University of Amsterdam) “Doing something new and possibly scary for the first time? Set out on a brave path and discover how to be vulnerable and wiling to learn from your mistakes.”

Workshop 11: Taster “Online Facilitated Dialogue session”

11:00 - 11:45 CEST
10:45 - 11:00 BST by UNICollaboration Facilitation team “In these sessions participants will experience what an OFD feels like and try out a couple of fun, light-hearted activities used to bring participants together online and prepare them for asynchronous collaboration over a number of weeks, which is something university tutors may ask them to do during their studies, especially at a time when Covid is making physical mobilities impossible.”

11:45 CEST (10:45 BST)

Break

12:00 CEST (11:00 BST)

Workshop 12: Let´s get serious - Games and Play for Intercultural Teams

12:00 - 12:45 CEST
11:00 - 11:45 BST by Alexandra Schreiber (University of Göttingen) “Examine some immersive and interactive aspects of play for communication within your team and use it for working together on your best pitch.”

12:45 CEST (11:45 BST)

Workshop 13: Draw Toast Exercise

12:45 - 13:30 CEST
11:45 - 12:30 BST by Alan Morgan (University College Dublin) “This is an exercise in Systems Thinking. Individuals are first asked to Draw how they would make toast. They are then asked to do this exercise in a group.”

13:00 CEST (12:00 BST)

Workshop 14: The Perfect Entreprenurial Pitch: Verbal and written

13:00 - 13:45 CEST
12:00 - 12:45 BST by Solomon Akele Abebe (Lund University) “The aim of the lecture is to help students clearly communicate their business ideas in verbal and written formats to a wide range of stakeholders. Students will be able to understand why entrepreneurs need to continuously pitch their ideas, what pitching entails in the startup context and the different types of pitches, as well as what a pitch deck means, and what it constitutes.”

15:00 CEST (14:00 BST)

Drop-in sessions

15:00 - 17:00 CEST
14:00 - 16:00 BST 16 drop-in sessions to book with experienced business advisers from Edinburgh Innovations to practice your pitch, discuss your solution and get feedback on your ideas.

10:00 CEST (9:00 BST)

Teams Pitches

10:00 - 12:00 CEST
9:00 - 11:00 BST 11 Teams will pitch their innovative solutions to their Global Challenges

11:00 CEST (10:00 BST)

Multiplier event

11:00

Keynote speaker & winning teams’ pitches

Bernardo Hernández

Tech investor and entrepreneur

Graduate of ICADE, Pontifical University of Comillas, Madrid’s most prestigious business university. He received a masters degree in finance from Boston College and holds the chartered financial analyst (CFA) designation.

At the age of 29, after five years as an analyst and portfolio manager in the asset management industry with companies like Fidelity Investments, BBVA, and Putnam Investments, Hernandez started his first internet venture, idealista.com, now the leading real estate site in Spain. Since then, he has participated as an angel investor in other online startups.

Hernandez joined Google in 2005, where he held various positions in the marketing and product organizations. While at Google, he led the acquisition of Zagat and ran the Zagat team until departing Google in May 2013. Hernandez was also the head of Flickr at Yahoo! until May 2015.

Currently, he is Venture Partner of the German venture capital fund e.Ventures and CEO and President of Verse Inc.

Press release

The Career Service (SIPPE-USALEmprende) of the University of Salamanca has organized and hosted from 13-16 July 2020 the Virtual Summer School in the framework of the Erasmus + NICE project in which it participates as a partner along with 7 other European universities.

NICE, an acronym for "Network for Intercultural Competence to Facilitate Entrepreneurship" is a training programme in English designed to help university students develop the intercultural and entrepreneurial skills demanded by the current labour market which is becoming more international and global. In this last year, 126 students from the 8 European universities of the NICE consortium have completed an online course while working together in international teams to develop an innovative business idea to solve a global challenge.

During the Summer School organized by USAL, which finally had to be implemented in a virtual format due to the covid-19 pandemic, the 57 participating students had the opportunity to attend 14 innovative training workshops, be advised by experts in innovation and entrepreneurship, and 11 teams presented in a pitch the business project they have been working on during the course to a panel of experts.

On the last day, a Multiplier Event was organized in which 200 people registered. The Multiplier Event began with a talk by the entrepreneur and technology investor from Salamanca, Bernardo Hernández, who was marketing director at Google or also the founder of the Spanish startup Idealista.com. Finally, after the presentation of the results of the NICE project, the winners of the 3 best pitches of the previous day's competition were announced and presented their pitches to the attendees.

These were the winning projects in the pitching competition:

Best Pitch: Reality Check, an app that prevents the spread of "fake news".
Presented by Álvaro González Hernández (University of Salamanca), Tavi Kurda (University of Amsterdam) and Teodora Marcu (Alexandru Ioan Cuza de Iasi University).
Second best pitch: SOSPITO, an app that verifies volunteer projects.
Presented by Ruhiyya Isayeva (University of Lund) and Merle Roza (University of Göttingen).
Third best pitch: Food Futurists, an app to avoid food waste.
Presented by Marcin Maniak (University of Edinburgh).

The NICE consortium is comprised of the following institutions: University of Edinburgh (project coordinator, UK), University of Amsterdam (Netherlands), University College Dublin (Ireland), University of Goettingen (Germany), University of Lund (Sweden), University of Padova (Italy), Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iasi (Romania) and the University of Salamanca.

The three-year NICE project, launched in September 2017, is funded by the EU's Erasmus + programme (KA203, Strategic Partnership) and aims to provide students from the eight universities in the consortium with the opportunity to develop key skills that will improve their future employability.