Cyprus Shines at Gen-E 2024: Celebrating Youth Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Europe

Gen-E 2024 is Europe’s largest Youth Entrepreneurship Festival, organized by JA Europe and hosted this year by JA Italia. The European entrepreneurship competition Gen-E 2024 brought together over 1,000 young entrepreneurs, their educators, business partners and policymakers from across Europe for an impressive exhibition of business ideas, innovation, and entrepreneurship. The Gen-E Festival also combines two annual European entrepreneurship competitions for the winners of the JA Company Programme and the JA Start-Up Programme from 40+ countries.

Salvatore Nigro, CEO JA Europe, mentions: “Gen-E 2024 represents a pivotal moment when we can combine past excellence with future opportunity, and ensure that young talents everywhere in Europe get the opportunity to unleash their full potential. We call upon policymakers, business leaders and education expert to act now for a concrete impact on the Europe of our youth.”

We participated in the competitions with this year’s national winning team of the Company Programme MiGuard and the winning team of the StartUp programme Preventa.

MiGuard, is a student company from Mitsis Commercial School Lemithou, who consists of Melina Papageorgiou, Antonis Christodoulou, Christos Christodoulou, Sophia Efstathiou, Christina Kaouri, Alexandros Papageorgiou and Giorgos Demetriou. The company, with the support of their teachers Georgia Charalambous and Christos Terzis, and their mentor Styliana Panayi from PwC Cyprus, created an innovative mobile application designed to combat school bullying and violence through real-time audio monitoring and analysis. It not only acts as a preventive tool against bullying but also provides immediate response capabilities, potentially transforming the approach to safety in school environments.

Preventa is a health-tech startup. They describe its application as an ally in our pocket, always vigilant against non-communicable diseases that cost millions of lives annually. This personalized healthcare application monitors, analyzes and alerts us to our health measurements, using the power of artificial intelligence. It identifies patterns for early detection and prevention. By integrating with smart devices, their app ensures continuous health monitoring, enhancing a proactive approach to wellness. The student team from University of Cyprus was supported by their professor Dr. Daina Nicolaou in Italy.

Anna Maria Demetriou, from the Preventa team, was honored with the “EY Gen-E Young Women Leaders Award” and Melina Papageorgiou with the Alumni Leadership Award supported by Nestlé. The awards are given to individuals who demonstrate outstanding leadership and management skills that impact their team throughout the JA programs.

Melina Papageorgiou, CEO at MiGuard mentions: “I am very proud and happy to have received this award! It is an honor and a joy for me to have represented my school and Cyprus in Europe. I owe a big thank you to everyone who stood by me throughout the competition, as well as to JA Cyprus for giving us this wonderful opportunity!”

Andreas Makrides, founder at Preventa mentions: “I had the opportunity to attend Gen-E organized by JA Europe, through JA Cyprus and team Preventa, after winning first place at the JA Cyprus university-level competition. It was an amazing experience filled with young professionals and entrepreneurs from all across Europe. Such events foster innovation and collaboration, creating a vibrant atmosphere for future leaders.”

Our team Matakia won the Digital Health Innovation Award by EIT Health and received their award during the opening ceremony of GEN-E 2024 from Salvatore Nigro and the Head of Entrepreneurship Education at EIT Health Montse Delgado Llavina.

In Greek, matakia means ‘tiny eyes’, and co-founders Linn Persson, and Maria Witkowiak’s proposed, low-cost, solution is a children’s picture book that uses a flashlight and integrates interactive elements with informative content to simplify eye health assessments and empower parents to easily perform eye exams at home and identify potential issues sooner.

Matakia team said: “Receiving the Digital Health Award from EIT Health is a significant milestone for Matakia. It serves as a validation of our mission to raise awareness about paediatric eye disease among parents. The award not only brings prestige but also reinforces the credibility of our efforts within the healthcare and start-up communities. It acknowledges the innovative potential of our approach to early detect and manage eye conditions in children. This recognition will help us gain visibility, attract further investment, and build trust with potential users and partners.”

Our Cypriot young people had the unique opportunity to participate in such a large event with participants from all over Europe, to network, to exchange knowledge and experiences with people of their age, to broaden their horizons, to face new challenges and create friendships that will last forever.

Our organisation expresses its gratitude to the partners of the programs, PwC Cyprus, Metlife Cyprus, Eccombx, Novartis Cyprus, ASBIS, Ministry of Energy, Commerce, and Industry, University of Nicosia, Research and Innovation Foundation, Mix FM and Panis Media.

Watch highlights from GEN-E 2024
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MlJ05nNg43E