New Generational Entrepreneurship Talk at NUN

Entrepreneurship club of high schools organized an Entre-Talk Entrepreneurship Summit in Beykoz Campus in 2019.

The rising phenomenon of the 21st century, entrepreneurship and other initiatives for the future of humanity was discussed during the summit. Several entrepreneurs coming from different towns in Anatolia shared their personal stories. Participants got to know more about concepts of renewable energy and dynamism during interactive workshops. Two hundred young participants from 15 schools who are passionate about entrepreneurship attended the summit. They were encouraged to leave a mark for the humanity during the program. Kübra Bayraktar of Zemin Istanbul (City Lab), Şebnem Burnaz of ITU Ginova and Yakup Sezer of Albaraka Garage attended the panel of “Entrepreneurship for humanity”.  “Anatolian Yeast Enterprise” panel was attended by people who brought life to their geography. Huriye Tezcan who started a cooperative to bring employment to locals in Lavender Scented Village and Nuran Özyılmaz who started the first geese restaurant and Mete Yılmaz of Prototek gave enthusiastic speeches.

The summit started with the talk of Prof. Dr. Tamer Yılmaz, NUN Educational and Cultural Waqf  board member. Prof. Yılmaz talked about entrepreneurship and innovation, answered student questions in minds with his presentation. Prof. Yılmaz clarified the concept of entrepreneurship ecosystem. “It is how your idea will shape the world, it is not your idea that counts. Today hundred thousands of peoples lives can change with your idea. Never forget this,” he said. Prof. Yılmaz said one cannot learn swimming without getting in the water first. He advised students not to hold themselves back from entrepreneurship and taking chances in life.

All speakers in the panel moderated by Prof. Yılmaz shared their own life stories and talked about the

steps that are involved in this process. In the second panel moderated by our high school principle Hikmet Konar, entrepreneurs talked about the pros and cons of entrepreneurship experience. They emphasized the importance of failure in this process as it is failures that helped them succeed in the end. Mehmet Mete Yılmaz mentioned the importance of personal search for meaning and advised students to never give up on their spiritual journey and find a meaning while chasing their dreams.

Students had the chance to get to know the speakers of the panels closely during lunch. In interactive workshops Şahin Çağayan underlined the concepts of sustainable and renewable energy. In financial workshop Çetin Emre Said talked about fin-tech field and the digital solutions that are introduced for customer service. In health workshop Yusuf Güleç discussed productivity and dynamism. Social entrepreneurship  workshop focused on putting the concept on map and contributing to resolution of social problems. Heads of the high school entrepreneurship club Nida Memnune Totu and Melike Ceyda Şenocak said their aim with this summit is to leave a mark. “Entrepreneurship improves communication skills as well as  self esteem. We have aimed to touch upon hearts with this summit. We wanted guest speakers life stories to set an example for us. We are targeting to hold this summit annually and increase the number of participants. We hope participants embrace entrepreneurship spirit and become contributors to society,” said Şenocak. In the summit, developments regarding entrepreneurship in the past, today and the future were discussed. Participants of the summit gained new perspectives and visions through talks about idea, project and product associations.