Full support from the Ministry of Youth and Sports for the online workshop
MERSIN, (DHA)- ‘International Academic Social Entrepreneurship Workshop 2020’ organized in cooperation with MERSIN University Young Entrepreneur Application and Research Center and Social Business Global Association was held online.
‘International Academic Social Entrepreneurship Workshop 2020’, which is the first academic social entrepreneurship workshop organized in Turkey and the workshop with the most country participation in the world in the field of social entrepreneurship, also drew attention as the only international social entrepreneurship workshop held in the last 4 years in Turkey’s entrepreneurship ecosystem. The workshop received wide participation from nearly 20 different countries.
Speaking at the opening of the event, Deputy Minister of Youth and Sports of the Republic of Turkey Prof. Dr. Halis Ersoz stated that efforts to increase entrepreneurship have shown remarkable results in solving the problem of unemployment, which is one of the most important economic problems. Prof. Dr. Ersoz stated that for this reason, in recent years, the government has been working on various methods for the development of entrepreneurship, focusing on entrepreneurship loans, new venture supports and business development centers projects. Prof. Ersoz underlined that social entrepreneurship is an important dynamic for the development of the country, noting that social enterprises are organizations that are at the intersection of the private and third sectors and adopt business-based and free market-based methods to solve social problems. Emphasizing that there are many social entrepreneurship projects for young people planned by the Ministry of Youth and Sports in Turkey, Prof. Dr. Ersoz said that there are young social entrepreneurs who have successfully carried out social entrepreneurship, as well as many young entrepreneurial individuals who have created significant social and economic impacts in our country without social entrepreneurship. Prof. Dr. Ahmet Camsari, Rector of Mersin University, stated that although there are many organizations that support social entrepreneurship through trainings, awards and capacity building activities, there are almost no institutional structures that support social entrepreneurship in academia and that social entrepreneurship activities should be given due importance in academia. Rector Camsari stated that as Mersin University, they are sensitive to this deficiency and in this context, they hosted the first academic social entrepreneurship workshop in Turkey with the International Academic Social Entrepreneurship Workshop 2020 organized by the University.
TOBB Board Member and President of Mersin Chamber of Shipping Cihat Lokmanoglu and President of Mersin Chamber of Commerce Ayhan Kiziltan also emphasized the importance of social entrepreneurship and the workshop in their speeches.
Dr. Faculty Member Duygu Hidiroglu, Director of Mersin University Young Entrepreneur Application and Research Center and workshop chair, emphasized that the field of social entrepreneurship is a virgin field that has not yet been discovered in the academic community in Turkey where scientific research is scarce, but in the world, Harvard, MIT, Oxford, Yale, Cambridge, etc. It is accepted as a major discipline thanks to the programs and departments opened in this field in successful universities that lead the academy and is highly valued. Speaking on behalf of Social Business Global Association, Ismail Hilmi Adiguzel, the chairman of the workshop, said: “As Social Business Global, it is of great value to collect the successfully struggling social enterprises in a single workshop report and present them to the public service and inspire entrepreneurs of all ages and from all countries” and added: “We think that current social enterprise examples should be compiled frequently and presented in such events in order to increase social benefit in society.
In the workshop, simultaneous workshops were held with many groups at the same time to identify social problems and find solutions, and opinions were exchanged in the light of examples. With the International Academic Social Entrepreneurship Workshop 2020, successful examples of social entrepreneurship in many countries were researched. It is aimed to contribute to the academic literature by sharing the results of the research in the final report of the workshop in a very short time. In this way, it is aimed to inspire and guide people and institutions who want to establish social benefit-oriented businesses or who tend to transform their businesses into social benefit-oriented businesses.
