Promprylad.Renovation is an Ivano-Frankivsk-based innovative centre created on the premises of a decommissioned plant. Its activities are centred on the intersection of four development vectors of the region: a new economy, urbanism, contemporary art, and education. In recent years, Promprylad has become more than just a popular venue for tours or training events. People from all over Ukraine flock to this place, while creative business owners even relocate to Ivano-Frankivsk so they can join Promprylad as residents and become part of this creative space that churns out new ideas. While still in its early growth phase, Promprylad.Renovation is already home to 25 organizations and companies employing more than 300 people.
The International Technical Assistance Project: “Partnership for Local Economic Development and Democratic Governance” (PLEDDG) also contributed to the growth of this unique innovative space in Ivano-Frankivsk. With the backing of PLEDDG, Promprylad equipped a new conference hall, hosted a cycle of training activities to build the competencies of local business owners, and engineered and installed a communications and navigation system called Lokki, designed to improve and streamline collaboration among creative industry entrepreneurs.
With the backing of PLEDDG, in the spring of 2019 Promprylad.Renovation fully equipped a conference hall that can comfortably seat up to 80 people during all sorts of training and business events. Around the same time, the centre hosted training events for some 200 small and medium business owners: two 3-day programs and two 1-day events staged in partnership with the Lviv Business School of Ukrainian Catholic University. Every event focused on one of the topics for which demand is currently highest: a design approach, financial literacy, modern approaches to HR, and business strategies. Feedback from participants suggests that the training helped them systematize knowledge, reassess their outdated abilities and skills, and, most importantly, gain an understanding of how they can put the new knowledge to practical use.
Meanwhile, a new initiative was being brought to life at Promprylad.Renovation during 2019 with PLEDDG support; namely a project to create an innovative communication system designed to streamline collaboration among small and medium businesses by increasing the number of interpersonal contacts and spreading information about existing projects and companies. The system is called Lokki. It was developed by a team of experts who are tenants of Promprylad, as well as the Lviv-based space Re: Zavod. The overall concept and product design were created by the Hochu Rayu team.
Training events were also held as part of the Lokki initiative: a workshop on designing the physical appearance of the system and a “hackathon” involving several creative teams, who collectively looked for innovative solutions for Lokki software. These events drew more than 35 design and product development professionals and creative economy entrepreneurs. Coaches of the Re: Zavod team — Vitaliy Kyryliv and his brother Yuriy — delivered a lecture on product design for businesses and a master class in creating one’s own product to develop creative thinking.
In summary, with the backing of PLEDDG, Promprylad.Renovation has created not just the training facilities and infrastructure that help business owners build their competencies and do business more effectively, but has also provided an integrated solution for communication problems experienced in the creative industry. The Lokki platform will subsequently promote the networking of business owners in various creative spaces in Ukraine and beyond. The system can be scaled up by installing hardware at new locations and expanding the database of business owners. Lokki will help establish dialogues, serve as a marketing tool and, most importantly, facilitate new partnerships, the creation of specialized clusters or even joint exports by building trust within the network.
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