The first İzmir NIC Talks event took place on 9th November 2021, at Manisa Teknokent. The session was opened by the İzmir NIC Project Coordinator Miray Şanlı Taşkın. The event co-host and as one of the fellow ecosystem stakeholders in cooperation within the scope of the event, Manisa Teknokent General Manager Prof. Dr. Huseyin Aktaş, then gave an opening address where he emphasised the importance of such events to the ecosystem, and that his organisation would be happy to participate in future activities.
There followed a presentation by Ms Şanlı Taşkın where she shared information about the İzmir NIC Project and Accelerate İzmir programme, which is designed to support of the growth of businesses both nationally and internationally, in ICT and Renewable Energy sectors. David Tee, the project’s Technical Assistance Team Leader, then shared information about the services to be offered including dedicated coaching and commercialisation roadmap development, training, investment support, internationalisation, marketing and IPR protection. Mr Tee emphasised that they are aiming to create a strong business plan and design measurable processes for companies.
There followed a Fireside Chat session where Car4Future co-founder Oğuzhan Sarıtaş and İnci Holding Technology Director Mehmet Tunçkanat, had an informative and pleasant conversation about life in a growth company and the experiences of being an entrepreneur in such an innovative market.
As a software engineer Mr Saritas talked about the challenges of investing in the electric vehicle sector, and importance of finding a good mentor and the value of support programmes. He also mentioned some of the negative experience of being an entrepreneur in Turkey, and the tricks to be successful.
The final session of the first İzmir Talks saw Faradai co-founder and COO Burak Sefer, make a presentation entitled “Innovation and New Market Opportunities at the Intersection Points of Different Technologies”, which was joined by Mr. Gökhan Çelebi, Key Expert of İzmir NIC Project. An exchange of thoughts took place on how mixing renewable energy with ICT enabled his business to grow, and how they are now at the point of international expansion.
The second of the İzmir NIC Talks series, which will focus on Information and Communication Technologies, will be held on 18 November 2021 at the Aegean Free Trade Zone (AFZ), in cooperation and hosted by the Software and IT Industrialists Cluster Association (YABISAK).
