This competition, promoted by the Vice-Presidency of the Government of the Azores and developed by SDEA (Azores Business Development Society, EPER), aims to stimulate entrepreneurship, creativity and entrepreneurial behavior. The purpose is the creation of businesses in Azores stemming from projects in the competition. The Regional Entrepreneurship Competition takes place in three phases, allowing the businessideas presented in the firstphase to enter into a process of development and consolidation, with the objective of ensuring the transposition of the winning projects into business initiatives.
The submitted ideas are evaluated by a jury that selects the best business concepts for a second phase. In the second phase, competitors receive specific training and consulting to enable the transformation of the ideas into effective business plans. The business plans are then submitted to a selection process by the jury in order to determine the three winning projects. The winners receive a monetary prize, these amounts are only granted on the condition that they become part of the companies’ capital stock and are used in the development of the selected business.
Source: DRAE Acores – EU Islands Project
Example of strategy 5D:
Organize Community Competitions
Another way to involve the community in new developments is to challenge them and other stakeholders via competitions. The local government can choose to initiate its own competition, like on “who hasthe best idea for a sustainable neighbourhood?”, or choose to supporta competition initiated by industries, SMEs, local science institutes, etc. The awards do not necessarily have to include high-cost premium prizes. Often the honour of winning is significant enough to drive participation.Since nowadays so many competitions are on national television shows, like “The Best Idea of ….” and “Design and Entrepreneurship Competitions” it might be worthwhile to look at their formulas as well, to create a “Best Idea of Island X”, or a student/young entrepreneurs competition with support of local media, etc.
