Being Poor but Sexy

Lazar Krstic, Petnica Center’s alumni and the Serbian Minister of Finance to be, talks about Berlin and Petnica. His letter is a kind of study on comparative potential of the Petnica Center which, according to his vision, should follow some experience of Berlin. Being Poor but Sexy I was passing a few weeks ago dangerously close to Berlin. Wherever the road takes me there, some elusive euphoric nostalgia deceives me. It is a powerful memory of a few extended moments of the past decade in which my then youthful rebellion crossed with fertile ground of the environment to create faith in a very different, extraordinary tomorrow. Besides Berlin, such memories bind me only to Petnica to bind - the moments where my eyes, quite unexpectedly knitted an entire unexpected life story. Coincidence or ... ? Berlin and Petnica have more in common than they may have seemed to at first - Berlin is there a kind of elder brother of a provincial girl who, when he matured, moved to the big city. a similar life story was woven for their own fans - of more or less isolated bastion of true values​​, which has resisted the sanctions of everyday, obsolete and well-deserved facelift to - in the case of Berlin, the European capital of cool and new center of the European entrepreneurship. This spring, Petnica is where Berlin was in the beginning in 2000s and this is the right time to ask myself what it should be done that it, Petnica, has an equally interesting and successful story in, eg. 2020. Arm, aber sexy - poor but sexy - these are the three words which the Mayor of Berlin used to explain rather witty in 2003 a funny cover and all the city’s features that attract free and creative people from all over the world for more than fifteen years. With over four hundred art galleries, museums, and one hundred and forty-fifth of its GDP in the creative industries, as well as special caprice of Modern Art, Berlin is perceived as the European Capital of alternatives. Different from the rest of Germany, but also from Paris, London and Vienna, and as such has developed organically into the center of the European technological entrepreneurship with hundreds of start-ups and about 120 million of venture capital invested only in 2011 (which is almost double compared to the previous year). In that Berlin has almost certainly surpassed London and stood shoulder to shoulder with New York (behind, certainly unsurpassed, Silicon Valley). I was lucky enough to spend in Berlin almost six months on several occasions since 2006 onwards, be it in kinds of scholarships, be it in visits paid to a few friends who had just started their businesses. I have since released a quasi-occupation twenty years ago, Berlin is today releasing for its residents and visitors. That spirit that rules are made to be "massaged" until the ends meet - that has historically been associated with both the Communist East, and the walled West Berlin - continues unabated even today. Profusely urban heritage and a bit gloomy history of Berlin serves as an adequate basis on which "Berliners" today build on their creativity: from the infamous former ‘border crossings real museums’, bunker clubs, and of the Berlin Wall, a unique gallery of graffiti. In the words of one young entrepreneur (see http://business.blogs.cnn. Com/2012/03/13/berlin-poor-but-sexy /), Berlin is a city of the counter-culture, where everyone is doing things their way, not ignoring remotely if the side that might seem crazy. A mantra of start-ups is just that - find your new way able to raise what you think does not work. All this is generally considered, and probably should not be surprising that the start-up community found such fertile ground just in Berlin. PSC has the potential to follow the development path of Berlin, if any, then at least on a much smaller scale. Petnica has always been an exception to the constantly deteriorating state of our educational system, and as such - almost alternate reality in this area. It has always drawn all kinds of freaks like us, among which are, as a rule, the names still recognizable at many places from Belgrade to Brisbane. For this occasion it would not be amiss that we, the most ardent among its visitors, return to it regularly, seeking to extend our own story and help younger people to tell their own. To make matters better, since not-so-recently, the students from the entire Western Balkans come to Valjevo province visited by and PI under Petnica’s students records some kids with a lot of exotic passports. When you add to all this a quick Internet these days which is not on only from seven to nine in the evening and the new facilities that are springing up over the final cover of those not-so-long-past difficult times, all the ingredients are there that Petnica follows the path of Berlin. Along with the opening of new facilities, it is a time that Petnica unofficialy permeates its programmes with the idea of ​​entrepreneurship, just to get this "take in" and be accepted, in case there is an interest among the participants for the enterpreneurship, but also among younger and professional associates. The idea is not to make Petnica a brand new town or a business incubator (we have only just finished this phase of construction), but it is to create a network around the potential of young entrepreneurs and those who, somewhat older, could be helpful to give it wings. From the laity kind of looking at things that work in other places, it seems to me that there are four simple and concrete steps that we can quickly make in this direction. First, it should be good to encourage students to start thinking already at the beginning of the annual cycle if the topic they have chosen has room for its practical implementation or commercial application. This does not mean that the topic should be chosen according to how much "commercial" it is, but it certainly means that we should encourage students to actively think about the possible practical applications of their work. Within those themes that span the commercial space, the students should be directed to carry out the potential implementation of their ideas in the shape of a modest business plan. For example, if someone decides to take a seminar in computer science or mathematics and to deal with the linear model of optimization of transport routes, why not consider whether for this project the result of applications could bring benefit to a transport company in Serbia? At the end of the theoretical part, which may also include an algorithm or a working version of the software, why not include a consideration of what would be needed to bring this work to the potential commercial applications (how long, how many resources - human and material, and in what time )? After all, isn’t Petnicka soap created as a result of one of the students’ projects? Second, for interested older students (and colleagues) it would be good to organize lectures and / or workshops on entrepreneurship (which is, otherwise, our educational system in which nobody pays almost any attention). Similar workshops are already in the Silicon Valley, New York, and since a few days ago in Berlin for all concerned (see, for example, http://generalassemb.ly), thus it would not be difficult at first, to copy a ‘practically orientated’ curriculum: from how cheap it is to advertise a product, to how to pack the most effective idea to potential investors. How much detailed it would be wise to go on each topic would depend on whether the lectures are held in the framework of existing seminars or during a special couple of days allocated for it. Finally, taking into account that among Petnica veterans there have been a few young entrepreneurs, and that in Belgrade there are a couple of associations of enthusiasts in this topic, lecturers probably would not be hard to find. Third, the competition in which the authors of the projects that have potential commercial component present their business plans could be added to the margins of the annual conference. Unlike the conference, associates would be able to participate equally with their ideas in the competition, which would add up another dimension to the collaborative engagement in Petnica station - at least to those who find it tempting. In an ideal scenario (see eg. Http://mit100k.org), awards in this competition would be nominal (to allow the winners to start with the realization of their ideas), but may also be less. For example, in exchange for the presence of the jury, the Serbian Business Angels Network (http://www.sban.eu) might be willing to commit to the winners the possibility to connect them with potential investors and help them to prepare for the meetings. Fourth, the Petnica, - for its real and material limitations, as well as its main function - cannot and should not be an incubator for new businesses, but we certainly have to open the door to such institutions in Serbia and abroad. If there is some luck, in Belgrade (after twenty years of empty promises) the Science and Technology Park "Zvezdara" will be opened this year, the project which was conceived exactly as a business incubator. In the meantime – as the young people who remain here realize that things have to be taken into their own hands - so in the last few years in Serbia a start-up culture has actively been developing (let's take the number of TEDx events as a simple indicator). I'd be surprised if many of the characters on this scene are not former students of Petnica, and I do not see any obstacle for Petnica to take the lead. Compared to today's Berlin, the still unwritten history of Petnica may be ten years late, but all the magic ingredients are there, and only there from all the other places where I have been a guest so far. If we add the curiosity that in Petnica somehow those real things are still made happen and the proven natural anomaly that Petnica inhabitants do not get old, I have reason to believe that things will come into their own place and just at the right time. I hope that the four ideas listed above are sufficient to begin weaving entrepreneurial gene into the ever-evolving Petnica DNA and I hope that some of them will come to life already in the next annual cycle. All comments, ideas and, in particular, incentives, assistance and support in conducting this into reality are welcome. Beta/file/ Lazar Krstic, Petnica Center’s alumni, now professional consultant frequently jumping between New York and Berlin, here describes creative potentials in the capital of Germany. His letter is a kind of study on comparative potential of the Petnica Center which, according to his vision, should follow some experience of Berlin. “After completion of new facilities, it’s the right time for the Petnica Center to permeate its programmes with the idea of enterprise. There is no need to make a kind of ‘business incubator’ there, but to help in making a network of young entrepreneurs around the Petnica Center”, he suggests pointing at four steps to achieve such goal. “First, he says, we have to encourage participants to think about possible application of their ideas; we can also teach them how to present their ideas in form of a kind of business plan. The Second step could be a short formal training related to the basics of entrepreneurship and appropriate skills. Here, he proposes, the Petnica Center can find a number of young people ready to help among its alumni who already became successful in small businesses. Next step is to make a kind of contest where the best business projects and ideas could be awarded. Finally, the Petnica Center should open its doors for more intensive cooperation and partnership with existing “small business incubators” and projects focused to help start-ups, especially based on new technologies. “I hope that these four ideas are enough to start weaving an ‘enterprise gen’ into continually evolving Petnica’s DNA”, concluded Lazar his inspiring article. Petnica Almanah

Being Poor but Sexy

I was passing a few weeks ago dangerously close to Berlin. Wherever the road takes me there, some elusive euphoric nostalgia deceives me. It is a powerful memory of a few extended moments of the past decade in which my then youthful rebellion crossed with fertile ground of the environment to create faith in a very different, extraordinary tomorrow. Besides Berlin, such memories bind me only to Petnica to bind - the moments where my eyes, quite unexpectedly knitted an entire unexpected life story. Coincidence or ... ?

Berlin and Petnica have more in common than they may have seemed to at first - Berlin is there a kind of elder brother of a provincial girl who, when he matured, moved to the big city. a similar life story was woven for their own fans - of more or less isolated bastion of true values​​, which has resisted the sanctions of everyday, obsolete and well-deserved facelift to - in the case of Berlin, the European capital of cool and new center of the European entrepreneurship. This spring, Petnica is where Berlin was in the beginning in 2000s and this is the right time to ask myself what it should be done that it, Petnica, has an equally interesting and successful story in, eg. 2020.

Arm, aber sexy - poor but sexy - these are the three words which the Mayor of Berlin used to explain rather witty in 2003 a funny cover and all the city’s features that attract free and creative people from all over the world for more than fifteen years. With over four hundred art galleries, museums, and one hundred and forty-fifth of its GDP in the creative industries, as well as special caprice of Modern Art, Berlin is perceived as the European Capital of alternatives. Different from the rest of Germany, but also from Paris, London and Vienna, and as such has developed organically into the center of the European technological entrepreneurship with hundreds of start-ups and about 120 million of venture capital invested only in 2011 (which is almost double compared to the previous year). In that Berlin has almost certainly surpassed London and stood shoulder to shoulder with New York (behind, certainly unsurpassed, Silicon Valley).

I was lucky enough to spend in Berlin almost six months on several occasions since 2006 onwards, be it in kinds of scholarships, be it in visits paid to a few friends who had just started their businesses. I have since released a quasi-occupation twenty years ago, Berlin is today releasing for its residents and visitors. That spirit that rules are made to be "massaged" until the ends meet - that has historically been associated with both the Communist East, and the walled West Berlin - continues unabated even today. Profusely urban heritage and a bit gloomy history of Berlin serves as an adequate basis on which "Berliners" today build on their creativity: from the infamous former ‘border crossings real museums’, bunker clubs, and of the Berlin Wall, a unique gallery of graffiti. In the words of one young entrepreneur (see http://business.blogs.cnn. Com/2012/03/13/berlin-poor-but-sexy /), Berlin is a city of the counter-culture, where everyone is doing things their way, not ignoring remotely if the side that might seem crazy. A mantra of start-ups is just that - find your new way able to raise what you think does not work. All this is generally considered, and probably should not be surprising that the start-up community found such fertile ground just in Berlin.

PSC has the potential to follow the development path of Berlin, if any, then at least on a much smaller scale. Petnica has always been an exception to the constantly deteriorating state of our educational system, and as such - almost alternate reality in this area. It has always drawn all kinds of freaks like us, among which are, as a rule, the names still recognizable at many places from Belgrade to Brisbane. For this occasion it would not be amiss that we, the most ardent among its visitors, return to it regularly, seeking to extend our own story and help younger people to tell their own. To make matters better, since not-so-recently, the students from the entire Western Balkans come to Valjevo province visited by and PI under Petnica’s students records some kids with a lot of exotic passports. When you add to all this a quick Internet these days which is not on only from seven to nine in the evening and the new facilities that are springing up over the final cover of those not-so-long-past difficult times, all the ingredients are there that Petnica follows the path of Berlin.

Along with the opening of new facilities, it is a time that Petnica unofficialy permeates its programmes with the idea of ​​entrepreneurship, just to get this "take in" and be accepted, in case there is an interest among the participants for the enterpreneurship, but also among younger and professional associates. The idea is not to make Petnica a brand new town or a business incubator (we have only just finished this phase of construction), but it is to create a network around the potential of young entrepreneurs and those who, somewhat older, could be helpful to give it wings. From the laity kind of looking at things that work in other places, it seems to me that there are four simple and concrete steps that we can quickly make in this direction. First, it should be good to encourage students to start thinking already at the beginning of the annual cycle if the topic they have chosen has room for its practical implementation or commercial application. This does not mean that the topic should be chosen according to how much "commercial" it is, but it certainly means that we should encourage students to actively think about the possible practical applications of their work. Within those themes that span the commercial space, the students should be directed to carry out the potential implementation of their ideas in the shape of a modest business plan. For example, if someone decides to take a seminar in computer science or mathematics and to deal with the linear model of optimization of transport routes, why not consider whether for this project the result of applications could bring benefit to a transport company in Serbia? At the end of the theoretical part, which may also include an algorithm or a working version of the software, why not include a consideration of what would be needed to bring this work to the potential commercial applications (how long, how many resources - human and material, and in what time )? After all, isn’t Petnička soap created as a result of one of the students’ projects? Second, for interested older students (and colleagues) it would be good to organize lectures and / or workshops on entrepreneurship (which is, otherwise, our educational system in which nobody pays almost any attention). Similar workshops are already in the Silicon Valley, New York, and since a few days ago in Berlin for all concerned (see, for example, http://generalassemb.ly), thus it would not be difficult at first, to copy a ‘practically orientated’ curriculum: from how cheap it is to advertise a product, to how to pack the most effective idea to potential investors. How much detailed it would be wise to go on each topic would depend on whether the lectures are held in the framework of existing seminars or during a special couple of days allocated for it. Finally, taking into account that among Petnica veterans there have been a few young entrepreneurs, and that in Belgrade there are a couple of associations of enthusiasts in this topic, lecturers probably would not be hard to find.

Third, the competition in which the authors of the projects that have potential commercial component present their business plans could be added to the margins of the annual conference. Unlike the conference, associates would be able to participate equally with their ideas in the competition, which would add up another dimension to the collaborative engagement in Petnica station - at least to those who find it tempting. In an ideal scenario (see eg. Http://mit100k.org), awards in this competition would be nominal (to allow the winners to start with the realization of their ideas), but may also be less. For example, in exchange for the presence of the jury, the Serbian Business Angels Network (http://www.sban.eu) might be willing to commit to the winners the possibility to connect them with potential investors and help them to prepare for the meetings. Fourth, the Petnica, - for its real and material limitations, as well as its main function - cannot and should not be an incubator for new businesses, but we certainly have to open the door to such institutions in Serbia and abroad. If there is some luck, in Belgrade (after twenty years of empty promises) the Science and Technology Park "Zvezdara" will be opened this year, the project which was conceived exactly as a business incubator. In the meantime – as the young people who remain here realize that things have to be taken into their own hands - so in the last few years in Serbia a start-up culture has actively been developing (let's take the number of TEDx events as a simple indicator). I'd be surprised if many of the characters on this scene are not former students of Petnica, and I do not see any obstacle for Petnica to take the lead. Compared to today's Berlin, the still unwritten history of Petnica may be ten years late, but all the magic ingredients are there, and only there from all the other places where I have been a guest so far. If we add the curiosity that in Petnica somehow those real things are still made happen and the proven natural anomaly that Petnica inhabitants do not get old, I have reason to believe that things will come into their own place and just at the right time. I hope that the four ideas listed above are sufficient to begin weaving entrepreneurial gene into the ever-evolving Petnica DNA and I hope that some of them will come to life already in the next annual cycle. All comments, ideas and, in particular, incentives, assistance and support in conducting this into reality are welcome.