On the afternoon of last Wednesday, a social day was held at the Plataforma das Artes e da Criatividade, which brought together the Municipality team and the community of entrepreneurs from Set.Up Guimarães. The meeting was intended to promote the sharing of existing projects, as well as the realization of a magusto with the objective of providing moments of networking.
Opening the event, Marta Mota Prego, from CMG’s Economic Development Division, presented the Set.Up Guimarães project, its value proposition and the three axes that make it up (TecPark – Technology, LabPac – Creativity and Set. Up (IN)Dustry – Industry). It also revealed some of the superincubator’s statistical data: over 65 companies supported, over 150 entrepreneurs supported, around 20 events promoted with over 500 participants, over 1000 m2 of space for incubation.
Next, Domingos Bragança, Mayor of the City Council addressed the entrepreneurs to mention that incubators are very important, as they “generate creative business opportunities, experimenting with new concepts that can prove disruptive”. The mayor stressed that the path of entrepreneurship is not without obstacles, “given that we are in an open and global economy”. “In Guimarães, we need entrepreneurs who take risks, even if supported by the Municipality, and who launch themselves in the business world. In our territory, we have a very strong cultural and knowledge matrix, with the presence of several research centers, the universities of Minho and the United Nations, and the IPCA, and we have public economic policies that favor the transformation of ideas into projects.” he said. Domingos Bragança also mentioned that, nowadays, successful companies, in addition to the essential technological and scientific dimension, cross, in their vision of the future, the social and cultural dimensions.
After the intervention of the President of the Chamber, pitches of some of the projects in incubation followed. Currently, there are 37 projects supported by Set.Up Guimarães, the super-incubator created by the Municipality of Guimarães to support entrepreneurs and entrepreneurs in the start-up and development of their business ideas. An incubation project that is divided into 3 axes: LabPac (creative area), TecPark (technology area) and Set.Up In (dustry) (industrial area). Set.Up Guimarães offers work spaces at highly competitive prices, investing heavily in facilities, knowledge and communication, also enabling the exchange of experiences between entrepreneurs and greater ease in developing the network of contacts.
