Open UP - 50 Years of Business Higher Education

A new online innovation platform has been established at the Faculty of Business and Economics, University of Pécs. I asked Zsolt Bedő innovational director of the institution celebrating its 50^th anniversary about it.

A project providing support for Pécs’ economy has been launched this April called: REVIDPécs. As part of the event series celebrating the 50^th anniversary of the UP Faculty of Business and Economics’ foundation, the faculty introduced an innovation market-square platform: Openup.pte.hu. Would this be the next step for REVIDPécs?

Zsolt Bedő, Director of Innivations at the Faculty of Business and Economics, University of Pécs. Photo: Szabolcs Csortos, UnivPécs.

Our aim with REVIDPécs was to make the people within the local economic community realize that they can directly contact the university, not with the institution as such, but with the lecturers, researchers and the students. We wanted to think just as openly about it as we did with REVIDPécs, but we took it one step further. We established a structure, an innovation market-square, an interactive space, where the figures who we started integrating into a community with REVID can talk, share projects, offer jobs and organize joint events. What is even more, they can upload the pictures they took together during events on a shared gallery. Another development is that when

a group gathers around a project with the Openup.pte.hu website, which any member of the innovation ecosystem can join, they can immediately begin working together on the business concept.

They can use a so-called project room, which contains useful tools and materials that can facilitate the creation of business concepts. Moreover, each member of the community can access an E-learning platform called SkillVersum, where they can share knowledge with each other.

Which of your successful projects would you highlight?

We had several, the latest was a collaboration with Brill Spirits near Szekszárd. Attila Nagy, the head of the company reached out to us for help in better displaying their products in the online space. They needed a modern website, a webshop and efficient social media coverage. With the help of REVIDPécs he met up with a team of university students who worked on the challenge within the framework of the UP FBE English BA’s Small business management course. By midsummer they built up the Brill Palinka-house’s online presence with the help of a London startup, and with the help of said startup’s software they have made the online presence continuous – the latter was free of charge, since the startup had employees who graduated from the University of Pécs. The Palinka-house’s web shop went online in the past couple of days as well.

How can one join the Openup.pte.hu community? Who are you looking for?

You can register at https://openup.pte.hu/welcome website where you must create a personal or corporate profile. It is important to note that for an innovational market square like this to operate efficiently we need our members to participate actively and to have a detailed, clear profile. Reciprocity is rather important:

we need to contribute to the community’s knowledge, and we must provide feedback in order to inspire the community.

We are welcoming not just corporations but students as well, as the project space name suggests we are trying to create an open platform. The students who arrive full of fresh, innovative initiatives can this way get in contact with corporations, researchers and government figures in a direct and democratic process in order to come up with and realize new and innovative ideas together.