Greek Team Testimonial

“Business Creativity was one of the most intense, innovative and educative programs that I have ever participated in. Traveling to the magnificent Tenerife and meeting some of the most energizing and positive people were enough to see our creativity levels rising and brainstorm, participating in group activities. During the whole 7-day period, we all learnt and shared knowledge regarding young entrepreneurship and innovation, but at the same time, having the most amazing and enjoyable time.

For instance, one of the activities that we engaged in, was related to reverse brainstorming. Given a product, or a situation we tried to define the most negative scenarios and aspects of it, and how to resolve it, utilizing in the most efficient ways the available resources. Even though this seems to entail a lot of know-how and training, we did it through a very fun and surrealistic game that connected the whole group. Such was also the case of a “fund-raising” game; wandering in the streets of Tenerife, and knowing no Spanish at all, we tried to communicate with the locals, trying to get something for free. It is amazing, how even people that were reluctant at first actually saw the benefits of fundraising, and were stunned by the results.

 

All of these processes enabled us to see that entrepreneurship does not have to be something for the experienced or elder in age. That was the main reason why we participated in an informative event in our last day in Tenerife, informing Spanish youngsters of the available European entrepreneurial programs, and raised awareness by giving out leaflets, crafting toys from recyclable materials for children and engaged in a fun energizing flash-mob.

I believe that our group dynamic was so diverse, that we were able to share different knowledge and skills. For this reason, I am sure that all of us will always remember this experience; both the fun and the knowledge that we have gained.” Antonis

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Spanish Team Testimonial

“Traveling and discovering new places is unique. Today, we have many facilities that we did not have before, low cost travel companies, and the endless mobility, training and work scholarship opportunities.

We have had the opportunity to go to Tenerife to this Erasmus+ project about Business and Creativity and that experience changed something inside us. We definitely learned a lot, and it wake up parts of oneself and help you face new challenges. Recycling, business plan, creative thinking, team work… Everything useful for people like us, interested in this topic, but to see the effort of other people to share their knowledge and to get to know so many different cultures at the same time (Romanian, Greek, Bulgarian, Polish, Czech and Spanish) was the most wonderful thing of this experience. People that open you later new possibilities in your mind so you can travel, continue your education and continue growing as a person.

 

Now we have discovered that there is more than our small and beautiful islands and it motivates us to share it with other people.

We are motivated now to do business caring about people and environment and to encourage others to take advantage of opportunities like this one because there are experiences that change people and people who will change your experience.

Thank YOU!”

Polish Team Testimonial

  “Definitely it was a great adventure for everybody. Some of us have been on exchange before, but for other people it was the first time when they had a possibility to participate in such event.

  We could develop our skills during tasks such as: setting up business, how to do the business plan, creative thinking or how to prepare a Christmas tree from cans. We discovered how creative we may be making things from various materials and we realized how many new objects we can construct from the garbage.

  All games during the workshop taught us very useful skills, gave us new experience and a lot of fun.

  What is more, during that time we met wonderful people from different parts of Europe, we made new friendships and had the opportunity to learn about other cultures and traditions.”

                                                                                                                                           POLISH TEAM- Cebulaki

Romanian Team Testimonials

“It was my first Youth Exchange. I can’t wait to repeat it. I left with a great baggage of Information regarding  entrepreneurship and recycling. Who would have thought that this two would go together so well. I also saw how different we are as European citizens and how different but in the same time beautiful are all the cultures. “ Adrian

“It was an extremely nice experience. I’ve learned a lot of things and I saw new places. I’ve met different cultures and different people with different personalities, but this thing wasn’t a barrier in making new friends. I never knew that you can make so many things out of recycling stuff and it was very nice to see that some people are even good in making nice things out of “nothing”. To sum up: nice experience, nice people, nice memories. Thanks, P.O.D. Association” Adina

“It was the first time that I participate in a youth exchange. The lived experiences from the project help me to know myself better, being put in new situations and contexts, outside of my comfort zone. I developed my English skills.
I’ve met new cultures, I saw different types of thinking and learned a few things about the other participant country`s habits.” Ana

“In the first place, I would like to thank the organizers for giving me the opportunity to get for the first, and perhaps the last time, in Tenerife. The weather was great, but I didn’t have too much time to enjoy the sun because during the time when sun was up we had to participate at the activities. Getting to the activities, I would like to say that they were wonderful, but weird in the same time, because the cultures and styles were different. Anyhow, we were all human there so we managed to get to know and understand each other.

From my point of view, we, the Romanians, have a more developed sense of humor, which helped us integrate a bit better. I would like to congratulate the organizers for having so much patience with me, for organizing such an international project and for doing it good.

Lots of kisses to Adelina and I hope there will be organized more projects like these to give the opportunity to other persons to visit other countries and cultures and to learn something new and interesting.“ Lorin

“I had a lot of fun. I was very pleased to represent my country in a Youth Exchange.  I would love to repeat this. I came back with a lot of information regarding business, information that I even started to apply. Very nice places and great organization from all points of view.”  Ciprian

“Unforgettable experience. I gain a lot of knowledge regarding the business domain and a nice thing was the fact that every participant had the opportunity to contribute to the information given. I saw beautiful places and I met a lot of nice people. Thank you for everything” Teona

Czech Participants Testimonials

     

¨Unexpected adventure, intensive intercultural learning, shining sun, blue sea and practice of cooperation – we experienced this and much more during one week of youth exchange, which was called „Business Creativity“.

As you can guess from the name, we had a chance to develop our creativity and enlarge our business skills and abilities related to the topic of entrepreneurship. On top of that each of national team was responsible to prepare part of the programme for the other participants so we got involved into preparation even before the beginning of the activity and we discussed all the details about our sessions. All the sessions of the project had nice flow and we truly enjoyed them.

There was Czech, Romanian, Polish, Bulgarian, Greek and Spanish team, all of us ready to share our experiences with entrepreneurship in our countries and all of us excited to learn new things. And we did learn – not only because of topic of our Exchange, but also about life in other countries and different approaches to life.

Some of us got more tolerant, some us are more aware what to expect when you meet another culture, some of us are more self-confident when speaking in foreign language, most of us found a friends for lifetime. One think is sure. We will never forget this life-changing experience.

Thank you P.O.D. for organizing this opportunity for us and big thanks to our sending organizations to make us ready for this!¨  Lenka R.

 

   ¨This project was focused on increasing of entrepreneurship awareness among youths. I think that this project greatly fulfill this goal. We got familiar with basic needed to start business. We learned something new about creativity and techniques how to be creative. Especially I liked Polish performance about negative brainstorming, which was new for me. In second half of project, we were acquainted with up-cycling of trash and how raise a value of garbage. There I was truly surprised how this model is liveable for small sellers, which are preparing souvenir from trash. Moreover, I had possibility to spoke with Bulgarian entrepreneur, which showed and explained to me her business model.

At the end of course we tried to prepare a public event to show to Spanish youngsters possibilities for starting entrepreneurship, to show where to find information about Erasmus+. But here I was disappointed, because location for public event was not chosen well. It should be on Friday near some high school or university. I really appreciate possibility to participate in this project. I had opportunity make new friends, to establish new connection which could be valuable in future. I made good connection to polish group, so hopefully I will visit them very soon. A proof that this connection is working, I experienced few days ago. I helped to polish guy to find some start-ups and entrepreneurs in Czech for his project.¨ Libor

 

       ¨I really enjoyed getting to know people from other cultures and sharing and exchanging ideas and experience with them. I appreciated that the project included some short trips around the island so that we could explore the surroundings a bit. The project included more less useful topics so I learnt some new things and methods. Even though I think that some of the sessions could be improved but as I found out during the project every person there had different expectations so it is very difficult to make it as the right fit for everyone. I am very grateful for the opportunity to participate in the project as I could experience how it is to run some of the sessions and meet very interesting people and new friends.¨ Ivana

 

We did it!

On 29^th December 2014 Casa Grande Surf Hostel got full again with youngsters from Spain, Poland, Romania, Czech Republic, Bulgaria and Greece. The reason? Business Creativity Youth Exchange.

The beautiful small city El Médano hosted us again for 9 days, full of new experiences, knowledge and non-formal education. After everybody arrived and got used to the beach and the surroundings we had to get used to each other so we made a short introduction at the Welcome Party.

Each country was in charge to prepare and facilitate some of the sessions, so we got to know each other a bit more with the Spanish team.

We also tried to make each night a pleasant one with diverse activities like: Games Night (including board games), Treasure Hunt,

Intercultural Night, Story Telling Night (we have seen some great interpretations or adaptations of national stories, with props, costumes, make-up and all).

The Greek group tried to make us a more connected group using some teambuilding and cooperation games in a funny and competitive way.

The Polish guys put our imagination to work. They’ve offered us new techniques to improve our creativity and to find creative solutions for our situations.  These methods – Forced Analogy Technique, 6 Thinking Hats or Reverse Brainstorming – are great to use for a start-up business or to refresh your work.

The Czechs took the business(wo)men out of us… with candies.

We’ve learned about business, how a business plan looks like and what it needs to contain; we found ideas, thought of businesses and tried to get investment in a simulation of Dragons’ Den… and they were pretty demanding and greedy.

As the topics of the exchange were business and up-cycling, for the second one we had as facilitator the Bulgarian team. They are experienced in the field, one of their members has a business, creating jewelry or decorating objects out of recycled materials, for years now. So we’ve learned how to use napkins, PETs, cans, cork, egg shells to create new things that maybe we have never thought of. Also, we’ve learned how to pack them to look more sellable.

With the Romanian group we’ve planned our public event with some entertaining activities on the beach, with chasing the youngsters of El Médano to find out what they know about entrepreneurship and with extra tasks to check our persuasive skills. We have spread into working teams and created informative materials, promoted the event, made a flashmob or created recycled objects – an intensive work for not so long time.

And we went to Puerto de la Cruz to inform people about entrepreneurship and how they can start their own businesses.  The weather that day was moody like a teenager: sunny, rain, sunny, rain… so we had a just a short time visiting the beautiful city center of Puerto de la Cruz.

That was not our only visit on the island, we also had the chance to see El Teide National Park and to find out from our guide more of how Tenerife and all the Canary Islands were created, the volcanoes’ activity, climate and many other useful information. We have ended the day with a (shopping) visit of Santa Cruz de Tenerife.

On 7^th December the Hostel got silent again and one by one we all got back to our lives back home.

But we had a great time together, for sure we met interesting people and we’ve made new friends, so we are looking forward to see them again someday, more wise, more full of life experience, but with the same young souls.

Un abrazo fuerte,

P.O.D. Association Team

P. S. More pictures from the project you can find on our Facebook Page

Scissors, Paper… Silicone

Time is ticking away and soon we’ll meet all the participants for the youth exchange.

We are really eager to know them, and till then we’re trying to get things in order, to buy the stuff we need for the sessions and so on… Well, regarding the things we have to buy, we got a bit lost in the multitude of colorful and beautiful things and couldn’t stop with just one item as you can see in the image below.

But the shopping didn’t stop here, as we want happy and creative participants all time, so we had to get some boardgames to keep the good atmosphere.

Pretty soon we’ll show you the materials for the up-cycling workshops too. So get ready to create some Christmas magic.

P.O.D. Team