Impact Hub Tbilisi: Work, Connect & Generate Ideas

GEORGIA TODAY met with one of the founder’s of Impact Hub Tbilisi, Ketevan Ebanoidze, to talk about a new venue she and her two friends, Giorgi Akhalkatsi and Elene Zhvania, recently opened.

What is Impact Hub Tbilisi?

Impact Hub is a global community network that as well as offering a wide variety of interesting projects for people of different professions and organizations, brings a common workplace and space to its members. From Amsterdam to Singapore and now Tbilisi, Impact Hubs can be found in over 85 cities around the world with more than 15,000 members.

It’s a place for enthusiastic, motivated individuals who are ready to share their experience to create a better tomorrow, who want to influence and have an impact on society development in any sphere, be it their city or their country.

There are three main components on which the concept of Impact Hub stands:

1) It’s the community of people who gather in each Impact Hub;

2) It’s content: programs, ideas, projects and events that are realized in all the impact hubs around the world, and;

3) It’s infrastructure: the facility that each Impact Hub offers to its members.

Impact Hub members benefit from a global community that brings guidance and access to resources, inspiration and collaboration opportunities which are shared through all the Impact Hubs worldwide for a growing positive impact on the world.

What made you decide to open one in Tbilisi?

First, the idea of creating Impact Hub Tbilisi came to George [George Akhalkatsi, one of its founders together with Ketevan Ebanoidze and Elene Zhvania] while he was living in London next to one of the first Impact Hubs in the world. He then shared the idea with us and we didn’t hesitate, because we knew Tbilisi needed a place where ideas could be generated and shaped. We started working on the project in February 2016. The process of becoming a member of the International Impact Hub community turned out to be both challenging and exciting at the same time. The accreditation process for membership had several important stages: pre-candidate stage, candidate stage, initiation stage, and so on. We had to do market research, create a business model, understand the look of the community, realize several projects…we also made two video-pitches and in the end, with a final product and a business plan made in October 2016, we became members of the global International Impact Hub family! We’re so proud of it, because we did it in a very short period of time- in only seven months! As the global organization committee said, it’s been almost a record-breaking result, since it usually takes at least eighteen months to open an Impact Hub anywhere.

Now, you’re up and running, what are your goals?

We want Impact Hub Tbilisi to be a place where new ideas are born, not just a venue or a space where you can simply work. We’re trying to connect all our members with each other and maximize the contribution of every member to the hub through the generation of new ideas and projects. We want to contribute to the process of civil society development, and we think that Impact Hub Tbilisi is an open and transparent place for that.

From the very start Europe Foundation in Georgia has been our main partner and without it, it would have been extremely difficult to realize our idea. We share the same vision with Europe Foundation- we both believe that it’s vital to form a strong and diverse civil society.

Tell us about Impact Hub Tbilisi members

Luckily, from the first day of opening, we had a chance to feel and see the effect of the Hub. Today, we have 15 individuals and two organizations as members. The interaction between all of them was immediate. We wanted to reach multiple segments. In a way, our ambition is to have a community of free professionals and civil activists who combine their efforts for a better tomorrow. To our members we provide access to the global Impact Hub network worldwide, with lots of resources available; from programs, initiatives and innovative ideas to a variety of projects. As a member of Impact Hub Tbilisi you can gain information on all activities and programs in other hubs around the world and implement them locally. Our membership packages are quite flexible: from 20 to 390 GEL (fixed desk, locker, and a card which gives you access to the space all week, day or night). We’re particularly happy to be located at Fabrika - a popular meeting point and a place where young people with wonderful new ideas always gather.

What projects are you currently working on?

One of the projects we’re planning and are currently working on is a Social Impact Award program. It’s a student contest-program that aims to make students more active and more aware in the social entrepreneurship sphere. In a way, it’ll be a competition of ideas, where students are offered the chance to create a business-model from an idea, which can then lead to the creation of an enterprise. It’ll have more of an educational emphasis and it’s not important how many participants win. The educational process itself is essential here. The program is set to start in February 2017 with a series of workshops with four main themes: social entrepreneurship, generating ideas, business model creation and business planning. The second cycle of the program consists of receiving applications from participants, after which an independent jury will select eight final groups, where not necessarily all members of the groups will be students, just 50 percent. Non-student applicants under the age of 35 can also apply. These groups will have a very intense two month incubational period with their mentors and they will learn how to make financial models, marketing strategies, etc, basically, they will learn everything that is needed to run a business enterprise. At the last stage, the jury will select three winners based on the best business plans prepared. The three winners will be awarded with EUR 2000 and a one week trip to Belgrade, where they meet with all the other Social Impact Award winners. When they return to Georgia, they’ll have a one month Impact Hub Tbilisi membership and the possibility to work in cooperation with Europe Foundation. If their projects succeeds, they can get an additional funding of GEL 20,000 from the Foundation.

The Social Impact Award is an internationally licensed program held in 20 countries and Impact Hub Tbilisi is a participant.

Another program we want to get started is the Business Model Challenge - offering trainings for start-ups in marketing or improving their financial and business models.

In October 2016, we hosted an international MitOst festival, with two very interesting panel discussions on urban development of cities and social entrepreneurship. One of the main focuses of Impact Hubs everywhere is social entrepreneurship, so we try to be in tune. We’re planning to organize a monthly platform of successful female entrepreneurs in Georgia, as well as series of events titled ‘Look Who’s in Tbilisi’ through which our Impact Hub members will meet with professionals visiting our city.

Overall, creating Impact Hub Tbilisi was a thrilling experience for us, both for me and Elene; it was our first attempt to do something completely new, independently. George, as a successful entrepreneur already, has been our motivator; we’ve learned a lot along the way.

Nino Gugunishvili