Awassa - Ahmedabad in 2 days

Arriving at the campus in Ahmedabad

February 22 2013 - It is time of departure from Awassa to attend the six weeks training in India Ahmedabad. Using the fast running new model minibuses from Awassa to Addis and the African new sprit Ethiopian Air lines, I arrive in Mumbai/Bombay India lately before the sunset on February 23,2013. After immediate transfer between the international and the domestic airports at Mumbai, we are forced to stay 10 hours waiting at Mumbai domestic airport before Air Jet local air lines finally takes us to Ahmedabad. A person of the Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India (EDII) collects us from the local airport and takes us to the EDII campus.

Next day is Monday and due to the long journey and extremely long time waiting at air ports every person is tired. The training center provides schedules, accommodations and starts training sessions in three halls. As per my registration I join my team in the training course for promoting Innovation and Entrepreneurship through Incubation. After the introduction in the morning, which is dedicated to the clarification of objectives and expectations, the afternoon is followed by micro lab practice in order to assist participants to introduce and familiarize among themselves.

Different topics are covered in the class or on the campus: processes of entrepreneurship development, the role of innovation incubation and entrepreneurship in economic development, and different steps of innovation:  how to convert ideas into enterprise, how to support grass root innovation.

The training is designed in the form of both theory and practical tools. It is lead by highly experienced experts and at the same time there is room to share practical experiences with innovative entrepreneurs who are invited to the campus. In order to have practical input from the beginning, we also visit the center for innovation, incubation and entrepreneurship at the Indian Institute of Management in Ahmedabad.

During the first week, I was an active participant by forwarding reactions, group work leading and attending the whole week smoothly. As an outcome from one week attendance of the training I started to think how I can be among the most effective change agents at least in my country. Let us see what will be in the next five more weeks.

First training session "incubation and entrepreneurship"

Tagese (l.) with pax. from Tunisia, Mauritius and Ethiopia