On August 26, 2022, the Dnipro Cluster of the printing industry, publishing houses and digital technologies “Printing: logistics, service, quality” held a powerful regional hackathon to find effective solutions for the manufacture of eco-products – “Green” business for printing enterprises.” The event was held on the basis of the Interregional Higher Vocational School of Printing and Information Technologies, as a center for training specialists for the industry.
The Polygraphic Cluster is an association of business enterprises, educational and scientific institutions, FOPs, striving to increase their competitiveness by implementing the principles of cluster cooperation, industrial, digital and green automation innovations and effective interaction with the state. The Printing Cluster became the first formal association of the cluster movement of industry enterprises and other professional communities in the region.
Currently, the cluster unites 14 participants and has been operating for 2 years. This is a young and powerful organization that deserves the comprehensive support of the state and sincerely thanks the European Union and the German government for their support in development and cooperation. Partner support is provided through a German federal company Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH.
What was it for?
The problem on which the work of the hackathon was organized is the development of productive thinking among the participants of the Cluster of printing industry, publishing houses and digital technologies. Often, cluster organizations at the stage of formation and development lack confidence in building joint activities due to competition in business, do not have a systematic vision of how to combine entrepreneurship, strategic marketing and creation of joint startups based on scientific intelligence. Using the example of the organization of this hackathon, a model of ways, methods, solutions, how to do it independently in the future was developed.
Today, the structure of the cluster consists of two communities: the printing business environment and educational institutions that train specialists for this segment of the labor market.
During the hackathon, the participants independently found the answer to the question “for what?” (why should business competitors unite).
To conduct the hackathon, two expert coaches were involved, who divided the tasks and goals between them.
The first is a professional career counselor, a team builder who can psychologically adjust to joint productive activities – Olena Bobir. The second is a representative of science, an industry expert engaged to develop an innovative idea for the implementation of “green business” technologies – Olga Sverdlikovska.
What is the breakthrough?
The breakthrough occurred in the creation of an event – WORKING TOGETHER ON THE SAME SITE OF TWO DIFFERENT COMMUNITIES, where they could try their hand at gaining technological and globalizing expertise.
In order to expand the public-private partnership in the region and create conditions for the development of the cluster, guests of honor were invited – external experts of the project:
- head of the Federation of Employers’ Organizations of Dnipropetrovsk Oblast – Viktor Volodymyrovych Sergeev;
- the first vice-president of the Dnipropetrovsk Chamber of Commerce and Industry – Serhii Volodymyrovych Kucheryavenko;
- the head of the Dnipro City Organization of Employers – Galagan Oleksandr Vasyliovych.
The event took place thanks to the support of the guest mentor: Maksym Potapchuk, director of Mental-Print LLC, and project managers as trainers: Natalya Isayeva and Elena Yudenkova.
What is the innovation of the hackathon?
The innovativeness of the event consists in the interaction of two different communities of the cluster, the combination of the expertise of the mentor, experts (scientist in the field and the practice of a professional guidance counselor, psychologist), project managers, involved external experts of the project. And also in working with the meanings of the problem in order to generate the idea “Development of ecological designer cardboard with optimization of properties”, which is important to develop together for all representatives of the cluster.
The participants found useful information about the search for an entrepreneurial and creative approach to developing their own projects with cases from the mentor Maksym Potapchuk – director and one of the founders of Metal-print LLC Kholodov Serhiy Vasyliovych – entrepreneurial practices and technological trends of the future, which are already brewing in the world in in the context of “green printing business”.
Reference information:
Hackathon “Green business for printing enterprises” took place within the framework of the implementation of the “EU4Business: competitiveness and internationalization of SMEs” program, which is jointly financed by the European Union and the German government through the German federal companyDeutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH.