Summer Camp is a week long event that brings team entrepreneurs from different countries and universities together. Last year we arranged the first Summer Camp at Tampere Proakatemia. We had team entrepreneurs from Bristol and Falmouth. We showed them around Tampere and we also worked in international teams to work on a challenge that Suomen Lasinjalostus Oy had prepared for us.
This year, on June 2016, 10 Proakatemia team entrepreneurs traveled to Bristol. In this year’s Summer Camp there was also team entrepreneurs from Amsterdam. Theme of the whole week was sustainability because Bristol was European Green Capital 2015. On the first day we had presentations about our own countries, team academies and projects that we are doing. It was nice to see what other team entrepreneurs do and what their academies are like.
After that we were divided to international teams of 5-6 people and we got to know each other better. We had a treasure hunt where we got to visit beautiful places around the city of Bristol. One task was to create a name for our teams. Our team came up with a name T-Mate: The Most Awesome Team Ever.
Bristol Suspension Bridge and Hamilton House with T-Mate: The Most Awesome Team Ever
On the second day we visited many inspiring companies and listened to people tell about their innovations. Every company was somehow connected to sustainability and making the world a better place. In the evening we were given our assignment for the week by LitterARTi. The challenge was to create a project for LitterARTi to launch in the space under the M32 underpass which can provide an income stream to benefit and support the residents of lower Eastville.
Visiting at Bristol Wood Project and City Farm
Next day we started working on the challenge with the groups we were given on Monday. It was interesting to see how our working styles differed based on the cultural background we came from. Nonetheless we got our team working beautifully together using everyone’s strengths and abilities. We had couple workshops during the day. First one was about the global goals for sustainable development and the second one was laughing yoga. At the end of the day our team had our main idea decided for the challenge and we were ready for the evening.
In the morning we gathered and started to work on our idea to make it more clear and to put in on paper. We were just in time ready with the presentation when we had to stop working and start moving to the next activity which was a lovely boat tour. In the evening we had amazing dinner at Cosmo restaurant. It was a buffet that had every piece of food that you can think about.
Our last day started with the presentations to the challenge judges. Every team had come up with different amazing ideas and all the presentations were inspiring. We Finns have a lot to learn from international style of performing your ideas. Judges took their time to decide which they would choose to be the winner. Competition was tight but in the end we were the winning team with our hydroponic garden, hen house and cafe solution.
10 team entrepreneurs and two coaches from Finland joined Summer Camp this year.
After saying goodbyes to everyone we headed home with a lot of great memories. Big thank you to Bristol team entrepreneurs for arranging amazing Summer Camp this year! We hope next year’s Summer Camp will be in Amsterdam. See you there!
Meeri Kangasmäki,
Noste 360