This course is designed for digital creative startups and entrepreneurs who want to expand the commercial potential of their ideas through collaboration with businesses and organisations from other sectors.
Consisting of three interconnected workshops and a guest industry session from Skillnet Innovation Exchange, this course will help participants explore how their expertise, products, services and creative approaches could create value in new contexts, reach new audiences and open up additional revenue opportunities.
Participants will also be offered a one-to-one meeting with the facilitator before the course to clarify their goals and expectations and identify key opportunities for developing their business idea.
Friday, November 27
9pm – 4pm @ CREW
Creative Business Advisor
Olga Kizina is a creative business advisor and organisational psychologist and with 15 years of experience supporting creative entrepreneurs, startups, and innovation programmes. She helps founders strengthen their leadership, build sustainable businesses, and develop effective teams while staying true to their creative vision.
Through her work with Creative Business Network, she led global programmes, including Creative Business Cup, Foreign Mentor Weekend, and Creative Business Academy, supporting creative businesses across Europe, Asia, the Middle East, and Africa in entering new markets and building international partnerships.
Since 2011, Olga has been designing educational programmes for creative entrepreneurs and serving as an expert at investor pitch events, hackathons, and startup competitions. Her hands-on experience and extensive work with founders enable her to tailor her approach to each business, taking into account the founder’s personal goals and strength
Identify transferable creative strengths, expertise and business assets that could create value across different sectors.
Explore new applications and contexts for creative capabilities, products and services.
Assess and prioritise cross-sector collaboration opportunities, including suitable partners, based on business value, impact and feasibility.
Understand how to structure and communicate an effective cross-sector collaboration.
The course explores two ways for creative businesses to work with other sectors:
A central theme is understanding what a creative business can contribute, where that contribution is most relevant, and which type of collaboration could create value for everyone involved.
A guest session from Skillnet Innovation Exchange, Ireland’s marketplace for innovation will introduce participants to its industry challenge model, what organisations look for from solution providers, and examples of opportunities relevant to digital creative businesses.
The course has a strong practical focus. Participants will assess their current assets, identify and evaluate collaboration opportunities, and learn how real industry challenges are presented through Skillnet Innovation Exchange. They will then develop an initial collaborative concept or partnership proposition, together with practical next steps for further development.
Throughout the day, participants will work individually and in small groups using interactive whiteboards, peer-matching exercises and creative problem-solving methods.
Workshop 1: Strengths and Motivation (1.5 hours)
This workshop focuses on why cross-sector collaboration matters, what a creative business can contribute beyond its existing sector, and what direction of growth the founder wants to explore.
Workshop 2: Opportunities, Partners and Collaborative Concepts (2 hours)
This workshop explores how to identify relevant cross-sector opportunities, understand the needs of potential partners and develop initial ideas for collaboration.
Industry Spotlight: Responding to Real-World Innovation Challenges (1 hour)
In this guest session, Skillnet Innovation Exchange will introduce its role in connecting businesses facing digital transformation challenges with innovative solution providers.
The session will provide a practical link between the opportunity-mapping work completed earlier in the day and the development of a partnership proposition in Workshop 3.
Workshop 3: From Opportunity to Partnership Proposition (1.5 hours)
Building on the opportunities identified earlier in the day and the guest session from Skillnet Innovation Exchange, participants will select an industry challenge or cross-sector opportunity and develop an initial response.
This workshop focuses on turning a selected opportunity into a clear collaborative concept or partnership proposition and preparing for communication with potential partners.
The course fee is €200.
This course is being offered to the SME at 20% of the market rate (the full programme is valued at €1000) with the remaining 80% supported by Enterprise Ireland Smart Region scheme. In order to avail of this discounted rate, all applicants are asked to confirm that they have the appropriate De Minimis balance to accept the support. More information on De Minimums State Aid can be found here: State Aid | Enterprise Ireland
This course is for digital creative start-ups and entrepreneurs who want to expand the commercial potential of their ideas through collaboration with businesses and organisations from other sectors. It will be particularly relevant to participants who want to:
The closing date for applications to this course is Friday 20 November.
