Future Entrepreneurs presented their ideas
Every year, the Entrepreneurship Day is organized for first-year students at the Jönköping International Business School (JIBS) at Jönköping University (JU). The day is part of a common course in entrepreneurship, intending to let the students develop a sustainable product, construct their own booth, and present their ideas to a jury.
On 24 October, the students began setting up their exhibition booths in the JIBS lobby, where students had the opportunity to present the product they had developed. The participating students are enrolled in either Civilekonomprogrammet, Marketing Management, Sustainable Enterprise Development, or International Management, all bachelor programmes. The course, which is part of all of these programmes, focuses on entrepreneurship, sustainability, and product development.
Awards for Best Participation
Students compete for five prestigious prizes of SEK 3,000 for Best Participation. The winners are decided by the teachers in the course, who collectively discussed and evaluated the students' booths, products, and presentations.
Kinga Janas, who is in her first year of Civilekonomprogrammet found the E-day to be the most enjoyable part of the entire course. Finally, they had the chance to present the idea their group had collectively worked on for several weeks.
"The day has been great! In addition to presenting our own idea, it's interesting to walk around and see what other groups have come up with. Some ideas are related to different parts of the world, which is nice to see," said Kinga.
Kinga's group developed an "Educational Board" for children, designed to address difficulties children may meet in life that require practice, such as tying shoelaces, unlocking a door, or zipping up a zipper. The idea was inspired by Kinga's background in Poland, where she had seen similar products.
"I have two children myself, and these types of boards work really well in Poland. When I moved to Sweden, I couldn't find anything similar, so I told my group about the boards, and we developed our own version," Kinga says.
Watch the video about this years Entrepreneurship Day down below.
The Most Sustainable Idea Utilizes Byproducts
Science Park also played a role in the event by serving as a jury to decide which of the groups had developed the most sustainable product. The prize for the winners was SEK 5,000, and the evaluation considered the sustainability perspective, presentation, booth, and target audience analysis.
Jenna Magnusson, a first-year student in Sustainable Enterprise Development and her group, won the prize for the most sustainable product with their idea "BeyondBeer," which aims to make use of the grain left over after beer production to create food products. Jenna believes that their group’s success was due to good collaboration and a clear focus on sustainability.
"The award shows that all the commitment we’ve put in has paid off. Everyone in the group considers sustainability to be a very important topic, and it’s clear that this is something we’re passionate about," Jenna Magnusson says.
Before starting her studies at JIBS, Jenna competed in the Young Enterprise Sweden (Ung Företagsamhet) competition. Her dream is to become an entrepreneur and start her own business after completing her studies.