Patrick Durand, Entrepreneurship and Innovation Advisor, is behind the creation of an Entrepreneurship Club on the Aix-en-Provence campus.
He discusses the reasons behind this new initiative, which is already proving highly successful.
What is an entrepreneurship club?
The main purpose of an Entrepreneurship Club is to bring together all students on campus who are interested in entrepreneurship, whether or not they have a project.
Why create one on campus?
The aim is to enable these students to come together, share their issues, and provide them with campus support in terms of logistics for meetings (which take place at the learning center) and exchanges outside of Teams meetings and the WhatsApp group.
Students also come to seek help on substantive issues by being put in touch with local ecosystem players who can assist them: the Pépite network, Institut Régional des Chefs d'Entreprise (IRCE), etc.
They are looking for examples and testimonials from entrepreneurs who can enlighten them about entrepreneurship, support their projects, help them train, and build a network.
Who is this Club for?
All students on campus are welcome. Today, around thirty have expressed interest. For the moment, around ten of them are actively participating. The interesting thing is that all profiles are represented: PGE, PIS, Specialized Master's®, PhD. Some already have plans to bring in external students. Which would be great!
What are the Club's major projects?
Some students are already working on personal projects. Others have come together to "get their feet wet" in entrepreneurship by working on a joint project.
What actions have been taken since its creation?
This club is primarily for students. The campus acts as a resource. The first meetings therefore focused on what they wanted to do with it. Everything still needs to be built and structured, but it's progressing quickly!
What are the plans for 2023-2024?
The current plan is to invite specialists to provide in-depth insight into topics that interest them. There are also plans to enable them to take training courses offered by the Pépite network on topics such as the different legal statuses of a company, pitching, etc.
A word from the project leaders
Alexandre, Régis, and Justin, all PGE students in their third year (class of 2019 and 2020), are the project leaders. Safetivalproject, an app that is already up and running and was recently tested at the 100-day Gala.
Safetival is a free mobile app that makes it easy to find your friends at large-scale festive events. Users can add their friends via the app, and a compass indicates the direction and distance of the person they are looking for.
Alexandre, who launched the project a year and a half ago, explains: " It allows users to feel safer and not get lost in the crowd." The young team is currently testing their product in a business incubator, a support system that allows them to verify the viability of their project before launching it.
They have put together a busy summer program. In July, they will be present at the Kermesse Festival in Nice, in August at the Seyne-sur-Mer festival, and in mid-September at the Fête de l'Humanité, where 100,000 participants are expected.
With their studies now complete, they will be able to devote themselves fully to developing their project. Competition exists, but in different sectors. The road ahead is clear, and as Alexandre says, "We're open to anything, we'll try just about anything!"
In a word: Thank you!
The current project is to finalize version 2.0 by Christmas and quickly capture new market share. In France, 1,000 outdoor festivals are organized every year. The goal is to cover about40 of them.
Alexandre reflects on what his training at Arts et Métiers has brought Arts et Métiers .
"very opportunity I was given to test my ability to express myself and sell a project to a jury helped me improve my oral communication skills. The JITCAM, I may have finished fourth, but it was my first opportunity to try my hand at pitching in front of an audience and a jury. Without this trial run, which was somewhat rough around the edges, I wouldn't have known how to prepare for the next times I had to do it, when the stakes were much higher than a project worked on over a weekend. I followed the expertise of CREDA , which opened my eyes to a lot of topics related to entrepreneurship. In addition to helping me write my first business plan and guiding me through the process, this specialization was tailor-made for my profile.
I also benefited from the help of Clenam (Entrepreneurs Club of the Arts et Métiers Engineers Society) and the Arts et Métiers incubator. I had the opportunity to pitch to juries from each of these organizations, which helped me identify my weaknesses and guided me in improving both my project (typically, abandoning the rental bracelets to focus on the app alone) and myself personally.
Overall, Arts et Métiers a good dozen opportunities to pit myself and my project against specific "opponents" who knew their stuff. For me, presenting your project to as many people as possible is the key to success. The school gave me a lot in that regard.
An entrepreneurial project is very paradoxical. You need very little time to get things done, but it requires constant attention to be able to seize the right opportunities at the right time. This balancing act drives you (literally) crazy when you have to manage your studies, financial resources, and a part-time job on the one hand, and the rest of the team and possibly a social life on the other. The program remains at the forefront in terms of the flexibility it offers entrepreneurs."
In a word: Thank you!
