MEET THE PROFESSIONALS

MEET THE PROFESSIONALS

Depending on the chosen format/ duration of the programme, you can choose to include “Meet the Professionals” short sessions involving your guest
entrepreneurs/ mentors.

GOALS

  • The goals for such sessions are 1.) to inspire the students, 2.) to allow the students to get to know better their mentors, 3.) to keep the an informal and dynamic schedule, as a way to increase both students and mentors’ engagement.

STRUCTURE

  • Such sessions should not exceed half an hour and they can include a presentation, a debate or both (in such case, the guest’s presentation should not exceed 20 minutes and the debate should not last less than 10 minutes). ideally, they should run between the workshop and group work/ mentoring time. Priority should be given to entrepreneurs and/ or project managers, responsible for the conceptualization and coordination of ongoing AHs projects.

MODERATION

  • To make sure the session runs fluidly, it is important that one of the organizers (hub manager, faculty) is present, to introduce the guest, control time and moderate the final debate if necessary.

CONTENT

  • Here is a set of questions to inspire the “MEET THE PROFESSIONALS” presentation and/ or debate:
  • What is the background of the person (education/early experiences/ hobbies/passions)?
  • Why/ when did they start their current position/ how they got there, what is their job all about/ what do they actually do (tasks, responsibilities, challenges)?
  • What type of technical/entrepreneurial/ soft skills do they need/ use to perform their job and how and when were they acquired (at school, by experience, through any kind of external support/ network)?
  • What was the original motivationto create their structure/ to develop their project(s)? And what turned out to be the most rewarding and most difficult?
  • What are the main challenges and opportunities of their daily
    work/ what they like/ don’t like/
    future perspectives? What were the challenges/difficulties in the beginning? Was the business idea good enough to begin with? What about the funding? How did they reach their customers/audiences? In what networks are they involved and why? Who are their partners and how do they contribute to their mission/business success?
  • What kind of advice would you give to a young AHs professional?

All the modules

For a 5 day duration programme, with a group of 25 students, the recommended outline has been defined as follows.

Module 1

Initiation & Ideation

Ice-breaking session where students introduce themselves
and discuss their goals and expectations about the programme through a series of interactive exercises. This is followed by team-building exercises to define the working groups. At the end of the session, challenges are presented and, through design thinking strategies, teams should be able to decide and briefly present the dea they will be developing throughout the rest of the days.

Go to the module 1

Module 2

Creative Project Planning

During this day, the groups learn how to use project planning basic concepts and tools, namely the Creative Project Canvas, in order to develop their project structure/ business model (depending on the challenge they chose). The Creative Project Canvas is the tool suggested for the groups to during the entire training week, to plan and reflect on theproject/solution/prototype to be delivered at the end of the pilot.

Go to the module 2

Module 3

Intellectual Property and Strategy for CulturalProfessionals

After a brief introduction about the characteristics of cultural markets’ structures and dynamics(particularly those of cultural work), students will learn the basics of intellectual property (with special focus on copyright) and how such regulations can affect their work (projects, business or career wise). In the second part of the session, through a series of examples of AH projects (businesses and non-profit), they will be introduced to other differentiation factors and how they can strategically use them in their projects in order to reach their own goals more effectively.

Go to the module 3

Module 4

Pitch and Communication

The Pitch and Communication session starts with some pitch warm-up exercises, so the teams can test a first approach to present their projects to each other.
They learn how to structure and deliver a good 5 minutes pitch and also about essential communication rules and techniques that will help them define the communication strategy for their projects.
As the day ends, a series of drama exercises allow students to learn and test their most natural and important communication tool: their own bodies.

Go to the module 4

Module 5

Body as Communication Device

In this session, participants are introduced to ideas and exercises that explore presence in relation to the body as a communicative devise and they are invited to partake in a number of exercises.

Go to the module 5

Module 6

Meet The Professionals

Depending on the chosen format/ duration of the programme, you can choose to include “Meet the Professionals” short sessions involving your guest entrepreneurs/ mentors.

Go to the module 6

Module 7

Final Pitch Day

In the final day, the teams will present their 5 minutes pitch to a panel of 5 juries, who will give feedback on the project and the presentation performance and decide which team is the winner.

Go to the module 7