Name & surname: Julia Laborda
Country: Spain
Age: 22
Sector of activity: Event organisation
Did you already start your business? No
What is your future business? A sports festival in Spain
Host Entrepreneur (HE):
Name & surname: Peter Dakskobler
Country: Slovenia
Sector of activity: Event organisation
Experience in running a business (in years): 7
Name of business/website: www.marsky.si
Period of exchange: 10/05/2021 – 27/08/2021
Duration of exchange: 4 months
Short description
Spanish wannabe entrepreneur, Julia Laborda from Zaragoza, applied to the Erasmus for Young Entrepreneurs program to get entrepreneurial knowledge and know-how from a host entrepreneur experienced in organizing sport festivals. Peter Dakskobler, an experienced Slovenian entrepreneur, who runs his own touristic agency in Soča valley, specialized in organizing outdoor sport events, seemed to be the perfect match for her. They got involved in a 4-months Erasmus relationship in Slovenia and jointly participated by the organization of several sport events – Ultra Trail Vipava Valley, Ultra X, Soča Outdoor Festival. Peter’s rich experience offered Julia a perfect opportunity to build up her business competence for her future business related to the organization of big sport events.
Description of activities
Julia came to Slovenia in May 2021 and quickly got familiar with Peter’s team and the working environment in the small town of Tolmin, Soča Valley. Under Peter’s mentorship, Julia performed a number of activities in the tourism and outdoor events sector. In May, she started directly in the team of Ultra Trail Vipava Valley, offered them practical help and through that got familiar with the team responsible for new races in Soča Valley 2021 and also with their approach. Julia prepared the ground for the new event Ultra X, where Peter and above-mentioned organizer of UTVV are partners with the English organizers located in Vipava and Soča Valley. Julia helped Peter by establishing the Outdoor & wellbeing open-air bar, which has also been the basecamp for the two outdoor events in Tolmin. Julia supported Peter in parallel strategic work on the Outdoor & wellbeing agency and bar concept.
In June they both focused on the execution of the new Ultra X event in Vipava and Soča Valley. They participated in the first edition of the World championships in this part of the world and set up good foundations of an international team for the upcoming years. Peter mentored Julia on the preparation of new competitions on Soča Outdoor Festival (SOF), including 45 & 85 km ultra-trail runs and a new MTB marathon. Julia assisted Peter with the management of the outdoor & wellbeing open-air bar which was also the basecamp for the Ultra X event in June. She took over organizing the work, outdoor & wellbeing offer and communicating the content.
In July, Julia helped Peter with the execution of above-mentioned competitions on the SOF event and was part of the closer event team from the very start. She was actively involved in the management of the outdoor & wellbeing open-air bar which was the basecamp for the SOF event, organizing the work, outdoor & wellbeing offer and communicating the content. She continued with the strategic work on the outdoor & wellbeing agency and bar concept plus promoting the Trail Running Adventures agency offer. They were both involved with the preparation of the Julian Alps Trail Run event with the new 100-miles ultra-race, and also finding place for participants in Soča Valley.
They considered their Erasmus exchange as a win-win situation and decided to prolong the exchange for an additional month in which they focused on improvement of the business plan of Alps2Sea agency and reacted by adjusting it based on the first responses from the market. Learning from the 3-months Erasmus experience and under Peter’s mentorship, Julia also worked on the improvement of her business plan and on how to organize an innovative category of festivals where sport and music come together to offer a unique experience.
Benefits and achievements
Julia learnt new skills in sport events organization from Peter like: communication and interpersonal skills, time-management skills and the ability to work under time-pressure to ensure the efficient running of big sport events and related administrative and IT skills. Furthermore, she improved communication with international audiences and learned how to deal with problems before or during the event. She has learned how to make good relationships with the team to collaborate in future events and how to continue developing her skills in this field. Under Peter’s mentorship she also improved her business plan.
Meanwhile, Peter benefited from the empowerment of an additional team project member, who contributed to the successful performance of the SOF as well as organizing a brand new event, where he needed new forces in his team (preparing all resources and making it happen during multi-day event, plus taking over the management of the new outdoor bar). With Julia’s support, Peter has improved his project management (documentation in English, tasks overview and delegating) along with the final execution of big events. He gained international feedback on new ideas of the outdoor & wellbeing concept that was already in progress and their market potentials. He has also improved communication for outdoor sport events in Soča and Vipava Valley for the international audience.
Concluding Remarks:
Peter DAKSKOBLER (HE): “On my side the exchange exceeded all expectations and all planned activities were carried out in very difficult and uncertain times. On top of that I can talk about very good outcomes and feedbacks from visitors of the new outdoor bar and participants of Soča Outdoor Festival after a break in 2020. In these times I dared and managed to establish the brand new travel agency and some of the achievements were even recognized from the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Slovenia giving us the silver innovation prize 2021. With the newly established institute I have also applied for a new project “Women Outdoor Camp 2022” within the Erasmus+ Programme (ERASMUS). The arrival of Julia with her continuous drive for improvements had a great impact on my business development, team work and internationalisation of different project teams.”
Julia LABORDA (NE): “This Erasmus exchange helped me to learn about events, tourism and marketing. I have met some interesting people of those fields and I have also learned about the culture and the country (the beautiful Slovenia).”