Our Slovenian partner, BSC Kranj, Regional development agency of Gorenjska region, has big plans for 2022. Their plans are orientated toward digitalization and rural areas of their region. COVID-19 pandemics showed us all importance of decentralization and also thought us that many jobs can be done remotely, at least for some period of time.
Gorenjska region is one of most developed regions in Slovenia, but many big companies and entrepreneurial support are centralized around biggest city of region Kranj and also in capital of Ljubljana, which is just couple of kilometers away.
So, focus in 2022 and also beyond, will be to develop rural areas of theregion and to offer local people their quality entrepreneurial support and also quality facilities for start of their business.
Firstly, they want to digitalize our process of SPOT point. SPOT point in point for entrepreneurs where they can get basic consultancy about their business and they can also register company at this point. Before COVID-19, majority of work was done live, when entrepreneurs needed to visit their point physical to access to services. Till now they were able to digitalize majority of SPOT point services, so entrepreneurs can access its services remotely. That increased accessibility to services for first time entrepreneurs also in more rural areas of Gorenjska region. In 2022 they are planning to continue with digitalization of our support services based on good practises Hoppid from Norway.
Beside easier access to support services, also access to physical space for young entrepreneurs in rural areas, such as coworking center, are important as well in order to retain them in their local communities. Our Slovenian project partner, BSC Kranj is running very successful coworking center and business incubator in Kranj. With knowledge, good practises and expertise from OSS project, they want to expand its activities and to open one new coworking center in rural area of Gorenjska region. Focus here will be on the city of Kranjska Gora, touristic municipality of the border with Italy and Austria. Kranjska Gora is well known touristic center in Gorenjska region with many opportunities for active outdoor tourism especially in winter and summer. There is strong entrepreneurial spirit historically present in Kranjska Gore with big focus on tourism. Unfortunately, municipality is lacking support for start-ups working in IT, tech and more modern industry. The plan is to open coworking center in Kranjska Gore in order to offer local start-up and freelancers place to work and to start their business. Here we were inspired by coworking Vratsa in Bulgaria, excellent example on how to support young entrepreneurs in rural areas working in modern IT based sectors. But such a place can have even more multiplicative effects for whole local community. Modern work trends are going towards remote work and digital nomads become reality. With this place in Kranjska Gore, BSC Kranj will address these two target groups as well. This will have benefits for broader community in Kranjska Gora since they will be able to attract tourist also outside major touristic season. But also, local entrepreneurial community will be huge benefiter here with a lot of new knowledge and business opportunities coming to their town from all over the world.
As you can see OSS project is bringing a lot of knowledge and great new things to Slovenia. So, stay tuned as 2022 will be very busy year for whole OSS partnership.
