Upon the completion of the Creative Spark project at Khazar University in cooperation with Middlesex University funded by the Creative Spark: Higher Education Enterprise Programme of the British Council, Khazar University hosted a two-day international conference.

On the 13th of June, the first day of the conference was organized in a workshop format where academic staff, students, and alumni of different universities in Azerbaijan came together to learn about entrepreneurship, embedding entrepreneurial subjects into the curriculum and many other related topics. Workshops took place in three parts.

In the first part, academic staff from more than 10 different Azerbaijani Universities discussed the sense of entrepreneurship. Trainers from Middlesex University talked about the ways to integrate entrepreneurship into the curriculum.

In the second part of the workshop, staff and students discussed the ways to support students’ ideas. In the last workshop, students separately discussed entrepreneurship, start-ups, and intrapreneurship, they also discussed the significance of joining multiple projects through their studies.

On the 14th of June, the International Creative Spark conference continued with a wider audience to talk about Entrepreneurial education, its impact on economic development, university education and its cooperation with the industry. The conference brought together academicians from Middlesex University and Khazar University, practitioners from the industry and young as well as female entrepreneurs from Azerbaijan and the UK. The Rector of Khazar University, Dr Irada Khalilova welcomed conference participants and talked about the importance of entrepreneurship in the universities.

Then Nargiz Hajiyeva, Country Direct of the British Council delivered a welcome speech - she talked about the Creative Spark project, BC’s cooperation with Azerbaijani Universities, and specifically about the number and the quality of international projects the British council and Khazar University have jointly implemented.

Dr. Georgios Dafoulas, director of the Computer Science program at Middlesex University welcomed participants and talked about the entrepreneurship activities and knowledge transformation that have been implemented at Khazar University.

In the following sessions, Dr Simon Best, representative of Middlesex University, and Dr. Andy Golding, the representative of Oracle TES, UK, delivered a presentation about key concepts of innovation and entrepreneurship.

Zaur Alakbarov, Adviser to the Chairman of the Management Board at the International Bank of Azerbaijan spoke about the activities of the incubation and acceleration centre under the International Bank of Azerbaijan.

Then Tatyana Mikayilova inclusion and sustainability expert and Medina Pashayeva founder of Maestro delivered speeches about women's entrepreneurship and empowerment. The event concluded with the key remarks of the two days by Razia Isayeva, Director of Development at Khazar University.

At the end of the event, participants build a network around the coffee, and they were provided with a participation certificate.