26 students from Switzerland, Colombia and elsewhere participated in this year’s summer school on cross-cultural entrepreneurship.
The fifth edition of the summer school by Universidad EAFIT (Colombia) and the FHNW University of Applied Sciences and Arts kicked off in Basel. Half of the participating students arrived with business ideas, which they pitched on the first day. Five of these were chosen to be developed further during the summer school, as the students formed intercultural and interdisciplinary teams and got to work.
As the students refined their business ideas, they received inputs from experienced lecturers and entrepreneurs. They visited companies and incubators in Switzerland and Colombia, such as Switzerland Innovation Park in Allschwil and Promotora de Comercio Social, an agency that promotes the products of microentrepreneurs in Colombia and all over the world. Thus, the students learnt about business model development and evaluation, market analysis and market entry, prototyping and pitching and the minimum viable product (MVP) approach.
Impressions from the EAFIT FHNW Summer School
In addition to the academic programme, the students had the opportunity to discover Swiss and Colombian culture as they travelled to Lucerne and Rigi and to Comuna 13 in Medellín and the town of Guatapé.
A special highlight was the presentations by two participants from last year’s summer school, who pursued their entrepreneurial projects further and are currently testing their prototypes in the market. This provided more inspiration and motivation, as it showed the students that even a short, two-week programme can have lasting effects and be the starting point for innovative startups.