With the motto “Young AND successful, who dares say it can’t be?”, the second Youth Business Forum took place on October 29 and 30 2013 in Mostar.

Like the year before, with the support of the USAID, the Center for Research and Studies GEA organized the Youth Business Forum, under the Student Entrepreneurship project.

The Forum was aimed at enabling young people to gather and engage into dialogue with other relevant actors on how to facilitate the realization of their business ideas and ambitions.

12 student teams that had won in this year’s competition for the best business ideas received valuable rewards at the Forum. They also had the opportunity to present their business plans.

The Student Entrepreneurship project enables university students to attend the school of entrepreneurship in Banja Luka, Sarajevo and Mostar each project year with the aim to help starters develop their ideas into concrete business plans. All starters gain the right to participate in the mentioned competition. In the two past years, more than 1000 students applied to attend the school.

Since this year’s Forum title was “Young AND successful, who dares say it can’t be?”, some of the last year’s winners shared some of their stories and presented their business ideas that had already become successful businesses.

The second day of the Forum was dedicated to youth activism, with a discussion between representatives of student and youth organizations. Some of the messages that could be heard were that students often do not take part in decision making processes at universities, that young people are marginalized and their potential is not used, but also that the belief among young people that hardly anything can be changed actually contributes to the current condition.

Private companies Hypo Alpe Adria Bank, ASA Group and m:tel have recognized the value of this project and have further increased its award fund.

The University of Banja Luka, University of Sarajevo and University of Mostar are partners in this project.