20.11.2014

STIKK participated in PPW Training

Two from STIKK’s staff participated in PPW Training organized on IBCM facilities on Mitrovica, which was led by Mr. Fatmir Bytyqi, who taught the group on tips & tricks on writing project proposals that target EU Funds.

During this three-day training, the participants got to learn more on how to approach the calls for applicants, how to carefully analyze the guidelines, how to result in efficient solutions for the project, and tips & tricks that help push the project proposals to a greater level. The training was concluded with a brief summary on budget preparation and on the rules for EU project submission.

• 
• 
• 
• 

17.11.2014

Advocacy and Lobbying Training

STIKK participated in Advocacy and Lobbying training which was held in Mitrovica from 3rd to 7th November with Mr. Simon White, a coach who had years of experience working in developing countries in the field of advocacy and lobbying.

During 5 days of training participants learned to define an Advocacy Agenda and Strategy, Advocacy Techniques and Managing an Advocacy and Lobbying Strategy. During the final two days of training participants were asked to create an action plan of advocacy and lobbying based on each organization’s activities which should be developed during 2015.

• 
• 
• 
• 

05.11.2014

KosICT Conference brought a unique experience for the ICT sector once more

On 31 October 2014, the third edition of KosICT conference was launched. Organized by STIKK and ICK, KosICT gathered over 200 ICT professionals to discuss the latest trends in the sector for three days in a row. The conference was opened by Mr. Shkumbin Brestovci, Chairman of the Board of STIKK, followed by the Deputy Ambassador of Norway Ms. Katherina Ramberg and Deputy Ambassador Mr. Matthias Kiesler, who also addressed the conference audience.

“Digital Transformation” was the first topic of the conference, where participants had the opportunity to hear the experiences of Dr. Martin Eldracher (Capgemini Eastern Europe), Arild Bjorn-Larsen (Making Waves) and Petrit Selimi (MFA). The next topic discussed was the Future of Nearshoring, addressed by Mr. Stephan Fricke (German, Austrian, Swiss Outsourcing Association), Mr.Till Hahndorf (Sourceconomy) and Mr. Jørgen Schroder Aanonsen (Netron Holding Group). This session covered the issues of exporting ICT services from a small country like Kosovo to the countries of the region and beyond. This year KosICT brought innovation for software developers as well, while offering them a parallel session to the conference. The topics offered in this session where: Cross mobile platforms Development, 3D Printing technology, Programming with SWIFT, How to Develop apps for Windows. The first day of the conference concluded with a very impressive session on Entrepreneurship and Open Innovation, by Mr. Baybar Altuntas (EBAN), Mr.Vllaznim Xhiha (EYE) and Mr. Ivo Betka (webcrowd). Meanwhile, Kosovar companies had the opportunity to arrange meetings with companies from Germany and Norway within the special B2B session.

The following day, started with the topic of Crowdsourcing, which was elaborated by the CEO of Crowdsourcing week Epi LUDVIK Nekaj. The afternoon session continued with #PrishtinaFTW, an event organized under the umbrella of KosICT and supported by USAID, which brought together entrepreneurs with investors. The opening remarks to this session were made by Max Gurvits (Teres Capital), Uranik Begu (Innovation Centre), and Michael Gold (Crimson Finance Fund / KosBAN), as well as special guest Tracey Ann Jacobson, the US Ambassador to Kosovo, who expressed her satisfaction for the work done by STIKK and ICK and also noted that the most valuable natural resource of Kosovo is its motivated youth and educated in technology.

Panel discussions have included topics such as: Finding start-ups and supporting their growth” addressed by local and international speakers such as Kushtrim Xhakli (Fast Europe Ventures), Michael Gold (Crimson Finance Fund / KosBAN), Murry Ivanoff (Metrilo / Eleven), Can Saracoglu (String Ventures) and Irina Chaushevska (Newman’s Business Accelerator). Followed by the topic “How to build and Angel Investor Community with Toby Stone, Uranik Begu, Alejtin Berisha (KosBAN) and Baybars Altuntas (EBAN). The second day of the conference concluded with best practices learned from Turkey by Can Saracoglu.

The last day of KosICT was held at the premises of the ICK, and kicked off with a brief speech on how the entrepreneurs and start-up leaders should present their ideas to investors. Afterwards, 6 teams had the opportunity to present their ideas before the evaluation panel. This was a unique opportunity not only in terms of perfecting their skills for professional business presentation, but also an opportunity to attract and open doors to investors. One of the teams managed to receive the award by the panelists.

STIKK and ICK thank all the sponsors who made this conference possible, and all the speakers who brought their valuable experience and lessons for the sector. KosICT is the traditional conference which annually brings topics of interest to the sector.

• 
• 
• 
• 

29.10.2014

The regional ICT conference KosICT’14 starts tomorrow

We don’t set limits, why should you? We welcome you tomorrow at KosICT’14

There is still time left for registering. The registering box will be opened the whole day until midnight at 00:00am of October 30. For all of those interested do not miss out on this great opportunity to connect and receive insights on the latest technology trends from digital leaders coming from all around Europe.

KosICT’14 will last for 3 days starting from the 30th & 31st October at Hotel Emerald and 1st of November at Innovation Centre Kosovo.

DAY 1 (30 OCT):

The first day of KosICT’14 will start with welcoming speeches from Mr. Shkumbin Brestovci – President of the STIKK Board, Mrs. Kathrina Ramberg (Embassy of Norway) and Mr. Matthias Kiesler (Embassy of Germany).

Shortly after that, KosICT’14 will begin with its first topic Digital Transformation where Dr. Martin Eldracher (Capgemini Eastern Europe), Arild Bjorn-Larsen (Making Waves) and Petrit Selimi (Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Kosovo), all of whom will talk about how technology is transforming the way we are approaching business, one’s country diplomacy and transitioning the everyday life.

In the meanwhile, KosICT presents a session curated for developers that will include the topics: Cross platform mobile development, 3D Printing technology, Programming with SWIFT, How to develop apps for Windows

During the second session, the talks on the Future of Nearshoring will be held by Stephan Fricke (German, Austrian, Swiss Outsourcing Association), Till Hahndorf (Sourceconomy) and Jørgen Schrøder Aanonsen (Netron Holding Group). This session will touch the topic of outsourcing ICT services from a smaller country like Kosovo to other countries in the region close to each other and the success that can come out of these cases.

The third session of the first day will be on Entrepreneurship and Open Innovation, which will include the speakers Baybar Altuntas (EBAN), Vllaznim Xhiha (EYE) and Ivo Betke (webcrowd). This session is considered as the secret highlight of KosICT as the speakers are top entrepreneurs from the local, regional and international scenes of entrepreneurship. At the same time there will be a B2B matchmaking event between Kosovar, German, Norwegian and Finnish companies. These sessions conclude the first day.

DAY 2 (31 OCT):

The second day starts on 10:00am with the session on Crowdsourcing, which will be curated and elaborated by the CEO of Crowdsourcing week, Epi Ludvik Nekaj who is a vast representer of Crowdsourcing has a global experience on the topic.

After the networking lunch, KosICT will continue with #PrishtinaFTW, an event that is organized under the wing of KosICT and supported by USAID, which targets and brings together entrepreneurs and investors. #PrishtinaFTW will continue on the second and third day of the conference. There will be welcome and introductions by Max Gurvits (Teres Capital), Uranik Begu (Innovation Centre Kosovo), and Michael Gold (Crimson Finance Fund/KosBAN), and also a word of welcome by Tracey Ann Jacobson, U.S. Ambassador to Kosovo.

The 31st of October is the Investor Day, which will contain panels and presentations by experienced investors investors from Turkey, Bulgaria, USA, and UK will share their experience and approach in angel and venture investing. The event will start with an ecosystem panel moderated by Max Gurvits on the topic: “Finding startups and assisting their growth” that will include the speakers: Kushtrim Xhakli (Fast Europe Ventures), Michael Gold (Crimson Finance Fund/KosBAN), Murry Ivanoff (Metrilo/Eleven), Can Saracoglu (String Ventures) and Irina Chaushevska (NewMan’s Business Accelerator). The day will continue with a fireside chat on lessons learned running accelerators and investment networks, Max Gurvits and Toby Stone, an investor panel moderated by Kushtrim Xhakli (Fast Europe Ventures) on the topic: “Building a successful local angel and investor community” that include the speakers: Toby Stone, Uranik Begu, Alejtin Berisha (KosBAN) and Baybars Altuntas (EBAN). In the end of the day, there will be a presentation on Lessons learned in Turkey, by Can Saracoglu.

Starting from 13:00pm there will also be a Kanban Board Game organized. The Kanban Board Game is a physical board game designed to teach the concepts and mechanics of Kanban for software development in a class or workshop setting. It has been described as the most effective way to teach Kanban. It’s hands-on, engaging, and fun.

DAY 3 (1 NOV):

The third day will be organized on the facilities of Innovation Centre Kosovo starting from 09:30am with welcome and introductions by Max Gurvits and Uranik Begu. The event kicks-off by Kushtrim Xhakli and Toby Stone. The third day will be the Entrepreneurship Day, where there will be first hand experience on building successful startups, opportunities to meet regional and international startup founders, and hear their stories on how to avoid the most common startup mistakes. Moreover a Pitching Competition will be organized for young entrepreneurs. This day will include a keynote on how to pitch your startup by Can Saracoglu and 2 pitching sessions. There will be a presentation on the importance of presence, reputation and working differently by Kushtrim Xhakli.

The day will continue with a panel discussion on building companies locally for global markets with Kreshnik Lleshi (CEED Kosovo), Vjollca Cavolli (STIKK), Michael Gold (CFF/KosBAN), Can Saracoglu (String Ventures), Irena Chaushevska (NewMan’s Business Accelerator). Additionally there is a fireside chat on the topic what does an accelerator do for a startup that includes Toby Stone, Murry Ivanoff and Mergim Cahani. The day will be concluded with pitch day results announcement and awards, and a networking party at Morena Bar 1996.

For more infos please visit www.kosict.com

See you at KosICT’14

• 
• 
• 
• 

15.10.2014

STIKK participated in the Daily fees and Antifraud and Corruption training organized by SPARK

On 11-12 September 2014, STIKK participated in the training which was organized by SPARK regarding calculations about daily costs, fight against corruption and misuse of funds. The training was held by Ms. Adriana Salazar, finance service of SPARK.

The purpose of this training was learning how to calculate daily costs within a project and also how to prevent and combat corruption and misuse of funds.

• 
• 
• 
• 

13.10.2014

SEE Trade Mission to Vienna, Munich and Stuttgart

On October 7-10, within the GIZ ORF Project in developing the South East European IT Export Strategy, STIKK together with the partners of the region visited the IT association of Vienna, Munich and Stuttgart with the purpose of promoting the SEE IT sector potential and the exporting/outsourcing capabilities. Together with the partners from the SEE region, STIKK signed Cooperation Agreements with the above BiccNet(Munich) and MFG/bwcon(Stuttgart) in order to strengthen the cooperation in regards to joint projects and business opportunities.

• 
• 
• 
• 

10.10.2014

ITO & BPO Germany Forum 2014

On 1st October STIKK participated at the ITO & BPO Germany Forum 2014 which took place in Berlin Germany. STIKK used this trip to also meet some potential partners in order to increase the visibility of the Kosovo IT sector and its members.

During this trip STIKK met with BITKOM – Federal Association for Information Technology, where cooperation possibilities where discussed in the fields of information sharing and also joint project applications within the Horizon2020 framework. In addition, the possibility of adding Kosovo to the market reports of EITO (European IT Observatory) was addressed. STIKK also met with Mr. Ivo Betke from the webcrowd, Dr. Sandra Schulz from ECO (Association of the German Internet Industry) and Mr. Maciel Laskus from Tash.io, and discussed various opportunities available for cooperation that would benefit the Kosovo ICT sector. During this trip STIKK also met with 2 accelerators Axel Springer Plug&Play and Startupbootcamp, with whom possibilities of information sharing and cooperation were discussed especially with regards to cooperation with ICK (Innovation Centre Kosovo) as well as other startups with growth potential.

ITO&BPO Germany Forum is the only international event for the ITO&BPO industry in Germany, to exchange best practices, get information about destinations and business models. The event is noncommercial, independent and organized by industry experts. The event focused on presenting best practices and ITO&BPO sourcing destinations from Ukraine, Bulgaria and many other successful countries that are now as a favorable destination to outsource services and also provided some useful information on what should a country focus in order to increase their visibility on becoming an IT Outsourcing Destination.

• 
• 
• 
• 

03.10.2014

STIKK participated in the meeting for drafting the strategy for career guidance and counseling

On September 30th, STIKK participated in the informative meeting which was held in the Ministry of Education Science and Technology. The purpose of this meeting was to develop a strategy for career guidance and counseling. In this meeting it was discussed about the work and methodology of drafting the strategy process. The development of this strategy aims to integrate career orientation into the education system.

STIKK has continuously performed research, and had many initiatives and projects through which it helped students to have access for guidance and information on career orientation. STIKK will continue working in this regard and will be part of the working groups organized by the Ministry, which are planned to last until December.

• 
• 
• 
• 

02.10.2014

Nearshoring Kosovo

The B2B economic mission titled “Nearshoring Kosovo” was held yesterday on October 1st, 2014 at the Innovation Center Kosovo facilities. This event was organized by the Austrian Chamber of Commerce in Cooperation in cooperation with STIKK and ICK. The event was attended by five Austrian companies and several Kosovo companies who presented their activities in order to identify partnership opportunities.

The participating companies were:

– Matting Management Partners Gmbh, MeBtechnik Gesellschaft, Reiwag Facility Services GmbH, Open Software Development OG research, International WIFI.
– Adaptive IT, Appdec, Frakton, Wheels, Tekkos, Trigonom, Ameble, Knock Creative Agency, WIFI Albania, Cloud, Mikrobiz, MIT Kies, Hello World, Aca, Solaborate.

The opening speech of the event was made by Mr. Peter HASSLACHER, the representative of the Austrian Economic Chamber, who welcomed the participating companies. Mrs. Vjollca Çavolli, STIKK Executive Director, made ​​a brief presentation about STIKK and the ICT sector in Kosovo while she also expressed her hope to see this opportunity result in future cooperation between companies of the representing countries. The event was concluded with the visit of the start-ups of the Innovation Center Kosovo, whereby the companies then continued with individual meetings with STIKK member companies.

• 
• 
• 
• 

18.09.2014

STIKK took part in the National Framework of Qualifications Seminar

On September 16, STIKK took part in the seminar on National Framework of Qualifications on the qualifications for the stakeholders of General Education and AAP.

The objectives of this workshop were:

– ensure that the participants understand the rationality of the qualification types in NFQ
– identify issues that affect communication with users about qualifications in general education and AAP
– assemble instructions from participants on the nature and use of the types of training

In the first presentation, it was discussed more about the types of training at NFQ, where several examples were given such as New Zealand, Ireland and Scotland. The main point of the discussion was which of these examples would be useful for Kosovo.These issues were presented by an international expert John Hart.

Also during the day two workshops were organized were the participants had the opportunity to address questions about the rationality and basis for qualification at NQF types of Kosovo.

• 
• 
• 
•