Academy on Tour

An all-day bus tour to another country with 24 agri-food entrepreneurs and about ten experts and advisors has proved an innovative way of developing business ideas and the skills and confidence to implement them.

Full Project description EN PDF icon (769.79 KB)
Project summary: 

The ‘Academy on Tour’ was developed to support (potential) agri-food entrepreneurs to develop their business  ideas into concrete plans and then implement them. It involves an all-day tour to a foreign country on a VIP-bus with appropriate facilities for work. Participants benefitted from expert presentations, one-to-one advice sessions, peer support and visits to inspiring cases. The first tour benefitted from EAFRD support to go from Flanders to the UK, where participants visited supermarkets and farm entrepreneurs to seek inspiration in terms of product development, packaging and branding.

Project results: 
  • 24 farm entrepreneurs received a full day of inspirational visits, expert advice and peer support for free – each one developed their own product or business plan.
  • One participant has already introduced three new products from an idea that was developed during the bus trip.
  • All participants rated it one of the best support tools they had experienced.
  • Innovatiesteunpunt now has a clear focus for its follow-up support and advice to the participants on the basis of the plans elaborated during the tour.
  • Further tours have been organised to Netherlands and France on other topics.
Post date: 
05/04/2017 - 20:20