On Wednesday, March 29, the grand finale of the first startup competition "Entrepreneurship in IT" was held, organized by ITHS, at the level of the whole country. Everyone had great impressions because the final of this competition is the crown of effort and work of both teachers and students. All the workshops were filled with great excitement and uncertainty. Socializing with students from other high schools, exchanging experiences, acquiring new knowledge and working on entrepreneurial ideas lasted from the very beginning of the competition, and the final led to real euphoria among both competitors and professors.

Our invitation to the competition, which was officially sent to all schools in Serbia on January 31, caused great reactions and a great response from the competing teams, which really makes us proud. Teams from Leskovac, Vranje, Subotica, Velika Plana, etc. also applied. After the selection of the teams, professors Mirjana Tomić, Mirjana Blagojević and Vladimir Puvača, organizers of the competition, held workshops on the topics: "Customer discovery – BMC" (February 22, 2023), "Finance – BMC" (March 1, 2023) and "How to prepare good startup pitch?” (March 15, 2023). The workshops were very interesting – the teams worked on the development of their ideas and gained new experiences, which will be useful to them in the future in entrepreneurship if they decide to pursue a career in that field.

After the workshops, the teams had time to work on improving their ideas until the grand final. 21 teams were formed and each of them was given five minutes to present their ideas to the audience and the jury. The audience also had the right to vote. The host of the program was Professor Mladen Stanić, and the Annex G Amphitheater was full of people who came to cheer for their friends. The expert jury carefully listened to all entrepreneurial ideas and evaluated each team individually, paying attention to who had the best idea and who best represented it. The winners received extremely valuable prizes: third place – everyone received a tablet; second place – one laptop and two tablets; first place – each team member got a laptop.

We are especially proud of the response of the audience, who voted in large numbers during the competition (745 votes in total – everyone could vote only once). Voting was closed immediately after the presentation of the last team. The support was amazing and everyone was anxiously waiting to find out who the audience thought was the best. For all those who could not come, a live stream was provided, so that way they too could follow the competition, vote and hear who the winner was.

The audience and the jury enjoyed the presentation of new entrepreneurial ideas, which were really great. Smart mirrors, the use of medical cannabis, smart yards and homes, apps that help you decide where to go out tonight, connecting employers and job seekers, smart sports trainers, and selling hand-dyed socks and printed T-shirts are just some of the ideas presented in this competition. After seeing the presentations of all the teams, the members of the jury retreated to the school office, where they conducted a careful analysis. They agreed that the best idea, which was also the best presented, was the idea of the team "Teslići" with the slogan "Fuel2GO". They came from Velika Plana, more precisely from "Nikola Tesla" Technical School. As there are people in Serbia who live and work in the countryside and supply our country with their products, the idea of this team was to help them by delivering fuel for agricultural machines because their gas stations are very far away. The idea is that they use the application to order fuel that will be delivered to them by a courier service. "Teslići" also had advertising material, which they distributed to the members of the jury, for which the audience rewarded them with great applause. The idea of this team was the winning idea of the startup competition "Entrepreneurship in IT". The second place was won by the team "Flow mirrors" from ITHS, while the third place went to the team "DecoRS", also from ITHS. According to the votes of the audience, the best team was "Baustelle d.o.o." from ITHS, the second place was won by the team "SmartNow" from ITHS, while the third place went to the team "WhereGo" from ITHS.

The competition ended with the awarding of certificates to each participant, as well as the presentation of awards and recognition to everyone who contributed to the organization of the competition.

Here you can see the LIST of all the teams that participated.

The jury consisted of the following members:

1. Aleksandra Karadžić (IMO);
2. Goran Rojević (Zvuci srca);
3. Svetlana Anđelić (ITS);
4. Nikola Dragović (ITHS);
5. Mirjana Tomić (ITHS);
6. Mirjana Blagojević (ITHS);
7. Vladimir Puvača (ITHS).