ENRICH in Brazil holds Innovation Bootcamp in Barcelona

As a member of the ENRICH in Brazil project, IASP recently organised a free Innovation Bootcamp in Barcelona, Spain, for European startups interested in working with Brazil.

ENRICH in Brazil is an EU project that encourages & facilitates the cooperation in Research, Technology and Entrepreneurship between Europe and Brazil by supporting and empowering innovation actors. IASP is a member of the project consortium alongside 11 partners from across Europe.

The event on October 24-25 was hosted by IASP member La Salle Technova and welcomed European startups and organisations looking to expand their market to Brazil or in starting collaboration with Brazilian entities. Laura Monaterio and Alicia Shelley from the IASP projects team were in Barcelona for the event.

The interactive workshop included training and coaching sessions, a focus on developing global competences for the Brazilian market and setting up a business in Brazil as well as Brazilian business culture. Rodrigo Olmedo of uGlobally emphasised the importance of knowing how to build trust and understanding cultural differences, concluding: “Do not underestimate the small talk.” He also highlighted that internationalisation is more than just selling a product abroad: it is a learning cycle, a process of making something international. Use different acquired knowledge to learn and expand.

International experts shared valuable insights and business skills, some of which were orientated towards Brazil and with a focus on this bilateral EU-Brazil interaction, but many of the sessions provided essential information and takeaways to be applied to business in general.  

Other sessions covered intellectual property, including the differences between patents, copyrights and trade secrets, marketing, internationalisation and why it pays for startups to be global, as well as explaining more about what Business Angels are looking for when they invest. The workshop included a personalised session at on identifying challenges facing the companies and how best to tackle them in order to reach their goals, looking at the why, how, what, which and many other questions startups need to ask themselves before expanding their market.

Attendees commented: "We really enjoyed the event we learned a lot and are very eager to enter Brazil next year."

To learn more about the work of ENRICH in Brazil, please visit http://brazil.enrichcentres.eu/home.