On 28 April, the European Innovation Council hosted their very first EIC Community Talk. In this ‘Ask me anything’ session, 16 EIC-funded SMEs had the chance to interact and receive advice on EIC Corporate Days from two former participants.
Filipe Aguiar, Manager and Chief Business Development of Pharma73 and Celine Saint Olive Baque, CEO of Noraker, acted as guest speakers and shared their experiences during the 1.5 hour session. For 70% of the participants, this was the very first EIC-event they attended, hence a great opportunity to pose questions and learn.
Emanuele Guglielmino, CEO of Advanced Microturbines Srl, was one of the participants:
“This EIC Community Talk was a great occasion to find out what is exactly happening in the Corporate Days”. Getting into touch with large corporate can be quite difficult for a young company: “We’re ready to hit the market with our product, but contacting corporates can be difficult, due to the many levels of management. Attending a Corporate Day would be an accelerated path for us. At the same time, we can get to know other EIC-beneficiaries from the Community. Perhaps we can develop some joint collaboration, you never know”.
“We’ve just joined the EIC and I wanted to know how all the services work. The online concept worked well, everyone participated, posed questions and discussed”, said Guillame Wegria, CEO of FYTEKO SA and first-time participant to an EIC-event.
Giving back
Celine Saint Olive Baque, CEO of Noraker and speaker during today’s session, attended many EIC-events before:
“We are all in this together as EIC Community. Since I have joined the EIC and participated in events, I really feel part of a Community. I’m gaining so much, knowledge, network, opportunities. Acting as guest speaker today is all about giving back to the EIC. I also do this in Lyon through the EEN-network. You get a lot from the EIC.”
Filipe Aguiar, Manager of Pharma73 also attended quite some events these past years:
”My interest is to share experience, it’s the best way to prepare for this kind of events. The EIC has been a partner for a long time and the EIC Community is very important for innovative SMEs. Today was also about giving back and helping more SMEs to be part of this dynamic.”
The EIC Community Talks are a good addition to the current EIC-roster, Filipe believes:
“It’s a great initiative, it gives SMEs the chance to share, and it’s good to see that many SMEs want to try and understand what to expect and look for during these days. I would have liked to have an event like this before I went to my first Corporate Day!”
Closing tips for SMEs that did not yet attend an EIC Corporate Day:
- Really pay attention to your application. This is the only thing the corporate evaluates for the Corporate day, so spend enough time on it.
- Tease your company and solution.
- Take full advantage of all the services surrounding an EIC-event. The Corporate Days are high value events. It’s worth more than months of emails and phone calls. Use all the tools that the EIC provides to make the most out of these days: the coaching, the training, all the preparation.
- Follow-up with the corporates will take time, be patient but persistent, don’t lose focus. You will get there!
The Community Events are recurrent activities of the Business Acceleration Services. Keep the eyes on the EIC Community and BAS Calendar for further details!
DISCLAIMER: This information is provided in the interest of knowledge sharing and should not be interpreted as the official view of the European Commission, or any other organisation.