Pristina, 18 November – On 18-20 November, the Techstars Startup Weekend Western Balkans (Mobility Edition) took place in Pristina. The regional event was led by the Innovation Centre Kosovo during the 2022 Global Entrepreneurship Week and was supported by the Transport Community. Under the theme ‘Smart and sustainable mobility. Better connectivity.’ Participants looked to foster synergies between people, places and the environment. The Startup Weekend Western Balkans gathered 100 participants and mentors addressing pressing challenges in reducing transport emissions, better passenger access and interconnectivity between modes.
The three-day program offered a chance to aspiring entrepreneurs to experience the startup life. The mission of the Startup Weekend was to teach and promote entrepreneurship and build, strengthen, and empower communities through experiential learning. All the ideas and solutions that flourished during the Startup Weekend aim to make the mobility in the region more sustainable, green, and inclusive. The front runners of this year’s hackathon were Bisha Studio, Supernova and Metroshare. Bisha Studio developed an application to better utilise private and public parking spaces in the major cities of the region, Supernova developed an application for micromobility with the reward system (digital currency) and Metrosahre developed an application for carsharing for students.
Additionally, on Sunday, the Transport Community Permanent Secretariat organised a roundtable on boosting innovation and digitalisation in the transport sector in the Western Balkans with the regional ICT hubs to discuss main challenges and possible solutions to improve innovation in the mobility sector. As identified in the Sustainable and Smart Mobility Strategy for the Western Balkans, innovation is crucial to enable green and digital transition in transport.
