13th EBAN Winter University Conference 2014 (November 17-18) - Europe’s Number 1 Conference for Business Angels with over 70 international startup investing superstars sharing their business angel best practices and success stories. The conference had offered two intense days full of program and useful networking opportunities.

Topics covered by the organizers and invited world-class speakers, but not limited to, were following: Internet of Things: Enormous Ecosystem of IoT, Mobile& Games: Faces behind the Success, Startups & Corporations: Connecting the Small with the Massive, Creative Industries: Human Mind Extended, Edutech: Modern World Learning. Attending the conference brought us lots of useful insights about the business needs and motivation factors identified by respected business investors and successful businessmen.

Slush startup conference (November 18-19) is the focal point for startups and tech talent to meet with top-tier international investors, executives and media. The philosophy behind the conference is: to help the next generation of great, world-conquering companies forward. In 2014, Slush brought together over 14.000 attendees and more than 3500 companies for the two-day event.

By attending the Slush we have explored upcoming trends in startup and innovation support, had an opportunity to listen to inspirational stories of various speakers across business disciplines and the most importantly to get to know better one of the most effective students initiative - Startup Sauna. This co-working space is situated in Aalto University`s Campus. It is organized as an accelerator that helps promising early-stage startups (students project mostly) to get ready for taking the next step, be it entering their market or raising a seed round of funding.

OECD Higher Education Programme’s “What Works” conference on Entrepreneurship and Higher Education (November 20-21). The OECD Higher Education Programme (IMHE) “What Works” conferences have been a successful series of workshops and meetings designed to assist IMHE members by reviewing current policy and practice while disseminating examples of successful innovation. “What Works” conference offers a unique chance to meet different leaders and practitioners, to share perspectives and experiences and to build institutional capacity in designing and implementing effective higher education policies.

The “What Works” Conference on Entrepreneurship and higher education has been developed by the IMHE, which has asserted itself as an important actor in higher education. From policy analysis to policy practice, this “What Works” Conference aimed to explore what works best in higher education. Its goal was to help higher education policy makers and institutional leaders see how to maximise the added value of the student experience.

The Conference addressed such questions as: What is entrepreneurship in higher education? Why should entrepreneurship be taught in higher education? How can entrepreneurship be taught? What institutional structures foster entrepreneurship in higher education? How do you assess entrepreneurship in higher education? Who should pay for entrepreneurship in higher education?

Attending this conference had been crucial brainstorming and knowledge sharing platform for defining key pillars of an effective educational model in creative disciplines in V4 countries, thus to accomplish the project goals.