On Saturday, October 15 from 9 a.m. to noon, the first "Agora for Impact Projects" in Ticino was held, an informal moment during which the 8 projects participating in Impact Club presented their business model to ask for feedback from the public.
Impact Club, the incubation track promoted by Impact Hub Ticino and supported by the Migros Pioneering Fund in collaboration with the Mercator Switzerland Foundation and a group of local investors and philanthropists, began on Sept. 2 and will end in late January with a week of events where the projects will present themselves to investors, philanthropists, foundations and onlookers. During the five-month program, the eight teams are engaged in activities designed to evolve their projects into entrepreneurial ventures, combining social and environmental impact criteria with investibility criteria.
"In this first month, the projects have been working on defining their impact business model"-tells Mirko Bianchi, Impact Club collaborator and co-organizer of the Agora. "The most important aspect in the development of a project is the constant confrontation with its beneficiaries and possible clients. That's why we thought of organizing this open-door event where we could show what has been done so far and question established certainties."
The Agora is just that, a meeting point "in the square" between projects and citizens, to contribute to the development of the projects themselves. It was a dynamic day marked by mutual exchange: after an initial brief introduction by the organizers, the project teams presented their business models, and the citizenry was later able to interact with the teams in an informal and welcoming environment.
"The contribution of the whole ecosystem in Ticino is important," says Tommaso Tabet, co-founder of Impact Hub Ticino, "as is the participation of citizens, public administrations, entrepreneurs, investors, business associations, students and anyone who wanted to contribute to the development of impact entrepreneurship in Ticino."
The meeting was held at Impact Hub Ticino's headquarters at Via Ciseri 3 in Lugano. Here the link to the photo album of the event