1. Entrepreneurship Seminars
FITT
(Fostering Interregional Exchange in ICT Technology Transfer)
www.FITT-for-Innovation.eu

2. What is INRIA Transfert BarCamp?
 3-days residential interactive seminar about company creation
 role-playing (participants develop and present their project)
 coaching
 teaching (INRIA Transfert staff & invited experts)
 A starter for researchers - entrepreneurs
 a realistic exercise of management of company creation & growth
 an opportunity to express one’s ideas and to receive feedback
 essential information, tools and contacts provided
 Goal: convince the “would – be” entrepreneurs
 changing mindsets
Source: Microsoft Office Images Clipart
 encouraging to enter the business environment
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3. BarCamp in Practice
 Internal event organised 3 - 4 times a year for INRIA staff
To built awareness of all aspects of company creation: development of the project, team construction,
administrative steps, financial matters, challenges and possible obstacles
 The “role-playing” concept
Focused more on “learning by experiencing” than on technical issues
 The “camp” concept
Three days in residence, full-time interaction between participants, coachers and experts
 The program is evolving within a fixed framework
The lectures and case studies are followed by working sessions with coachers and group work inside of
the teams; two assessment sessions during the event.
 INRIA Transfert provides the right people
INRIA’s subsidiary, charged with supporting start-up projects, provides experienced coachers and
experts from its staff and numerous contacts among business people, consultants and investors
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4. Program scheme
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5. The rules of the game
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6. When?
 Timing
 First BarCamp organised in January 2008
 The concept has been tested during 2008: 4 “regular” BarCamps and 2
“light” versions for students
 The frequency is 3 - 4 times per year; it will increase after opening
BarCamp to participants from other organisations
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7. Who?
 Stakeholders
 BarCamp event: 16 trainees, 3 full-time trainers and 8 experts for projects
assessment (jury) and coaching
 To launch a BarCamp event: one person is enough, as the scheme is well
described
 To carry out the event: minimum 2 persons, 3 persons is optimal to better manage
the time dedicated to coaching
 Participants
 Profile: open, curious, motivated to gain new experience, with research background,
concerned and close to start-up projects, ready to work intensively during 3 days;
age and experience do not play a role
 Selection: INRIA members, priority to those who already have a start-up project at
short or medium term; those who want to discover are welcomed if places are
available; their participation boosts the group dynamics
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8. Where?
 Location
 Near Paris, Vallée de Chevreuse
 Organised at the national level, involving INRIA’s headquarters (Transfer
and Innovation Department, general management) and INRIA Transfert,
as well as regional TT officers
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9. Pros & Cons
PROs CONs
 Role playing and case solving with  Some elements are necessary to succeed:
presence of high level experts renowned in strong and experienced organisation team,
Paris region; exchange between various
actors is easy homogeneity of culture, quality of experts,
construction of trainees group; if one or more
 Learning by experience during BarCamp of them are weak points, the risk of failure is
work, even if the problems to solve are high
fictive
 It is difficult to try similar approach without the
 No ‘theoretical’ lectures, but overview of specific know-how (the best is to contact
main concepts and lessons learned INRIA Transfert which can share it)
 Visible impact on motivation of participants
with “entrepreneurship spirit”, which get
stimulated by role-playing experience
 Innovative concept; residential seminar
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10. Why ? (1/2)
Source: Microsoft Office Images Clipart
Source: Microsoft Office Images Clipart
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11. Why ? (2/2)
 Impact:
 Participants express higher motivation to go into start-up
 The future entrepreneur can realise the challenges he will have to face; this
will help him to anticipate the problems and to take decisions
 Examples of participants feedback:
 “Yesterday I believed that technology was doing all by itself; I started to create a
company and now I change the way I used to think about its development.”
 “I understood that if I wouldn’t go into the start-up, being the technology creator,
the company had no chances to succeed.”
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12. Outcome
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13. Lessons Learned
 The main part of success comes from unique competencies and know-how:
training mode, relations with trainees, expert’s quality are determinant
 The scheme of BarCamp is well funded, but still evolving, taking into
account new ideas and improvements
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14. Suggested Readings
 Link to bibliography:
Boosting the knowledge valorisation process: putting plans into action. - Direct your
university towards entrepreneurship, PriceWaterhouseCoopers and Technopartner 2006
Creating University Spin-Offs : A Science-Based Design Perspective; Elco Van Burg, Georges
L. Romme, Victor A. Gilsing, Isabelle M.M. J. Reymen, Product Development & Management
Association 2008
 Link to code book:
Creativity, Start-up, University Spinoffs, Coaching, Entrepreneur, Entrepreneurship
 Link to related websites:
www.inria-transfert.fr
www.inria.fr/valorisation/index.fr
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