DOMŽALE ENTREPRENEURSHIP FESTIVAL, SLOVENIA
UNEMPLOYED
The 2019 Domžale Entrepreneurship Festival brought together entrepreneurial mentors and seniors to explore ways in which seniors may live an entrepreneurial life. It included workshops on various topics, including on earning extra income after retirement, doing business as a senior, and choosing an appropriate legal form. It was an initiative of Slovenia’s Regional Chamber of Crafts and Entrepreneurship, co-financed through the European Regional Development Fund, The Ministry of Economic Development and SPIRIT Slovenia.
The festival focused on promoting intergenerational entrepreneurship and entrepreneurship among seniors. This initiative was launched to address the fact that virtually no efforts to promote entrepreneurship were targeted towards seniors, despite their experience and potential.
The Domžale Entrepreneurship Festival was held in the Domžale municipality over five days in November 2019. It targeted seniors, particularly those who are retired and may be interested in entrepreneurship. The festival consisted of a series of workshops and events. On the first day, an event at the Domžale Chamber of Crafts brought together 20 Slovenian entrepreneurial mentors to discuss how to facilitate and support entrepreneurship among seniors. On the second day, a hands-on workshop was held for seniors to explore how they could create an enterprise for additional income in retirement. The workshop discussed ideation, and how to choose an appropriate legal form to avoid issues related to taxation and pension entitlements. On the third day, winners of a local entrepreneurial competition presented their projects, and the Domžale Deputy Mayor Renata Kosec met with festival attendees to brainstorm solutions to better address the needs of older citizens in entrepreneurship and beyond. The festival also included a press conference, and a networking event.
About 70 participants attended the 2019 Domžale Entrepreneurship Festival. The municipality and the local Chamber of Crafts planned to continue to promote entrepreneurship amongst seniors through another entrepreneurship festival in 2021. The festival’s impact was not measured. While it is difficult to assess its incidence on entrepreneurial spirit, interventions highlighting role models and using experiential learning are typically useful in increasing awareness of entrepreneurship among groups that are less included in media representation of entrepreneurs.
This case study was adapted from material published in: OECD (2020), Inclusive Entrepreneurship Policies Country Assessment Notes - Slovenia 2020, OECD, www.oecd.org/cfe/smes/Slovenia-IE-2020.pdf and the following sources: