Nomazine – a ticket into the world of digital nomads

Posted on April 26, 2023 by Angela Ivanova in Erasmus+, Nomadland | Leave a comment

*Picture*: *Arctic Coworking Lodge, in Lofoten, Norway*

The youth energy, amazing stories and inspiring places are the focus of the Nomazine – a magazine about digital nomads in the countryside. The colourful and youth-friendly magazine brings 11 stories of digital nomads with an insight into their world and places. Prepared by the international European Team from Slovenia, Spain, Germany and Croatia and as a part of the Nomadland Erasmus+ project, the magazine Nomadland is a journey into a modern countryside, combining the best approaches from rural and urban areas!

Rural areas in Europe face both challenges of the outmigration of young people and the increase in the ageing of the population. Day by day, there are fewer job opportunities, and challenges are growing. Although the trend started already before, the COVID-19 pandemic showed us that a countryside is a place for creativity. Due to the digitalisation of jobs and the emergence of new industries, a new trend has begun – an increase in remote work. Many employees began to understand that they could be as successful working from their home garden as in the office.

11 authentic stories of digital nomads

*Nat Riley has been an entrepreneur, business coach and digital nomad since 2020. She’s one of 11 digital nomadas, presented in the Nomazine*

We asked 11 digital nomads about their first steps into stepping out of their comfort zone and searching for their new home in the countryside. The journey was not easy; many obstacles and challenges were on the way, but benefits prevailed. Nature and rural life make way for an inspirational new start, as Gokulnath, interviewed digital nomad, acknowledged: »Walking in nature daily is a great inspiration and makes me more productive. I even noticed that I achieve better results at work now«. Each story is unique, revealing a part of the modern digital nomads’ world.

Soil, Sea, Ice and fire

“Coliving life, especially rural coliving, is like umami in cooking – many ingredients, colour, sensations, tastes, aftertastes, emotions, passion, laughter, tears, work, fun, relaxation… and all this – in perfect balance.” Katya Dimitrova, founder of Burgas Coliving in Bulgaria

Digital nomads have their stories, but the same applies to places that connect them to the local community and other digital nomads. Many new colivings, retreats and other projects have recently developed around Europe. A former farm has become a centre for makers, and a castle again has become an ideal place for remote work. In Nomazine, 20 unique places in the countryside are presented for the first time – each a hotbed for creative and innovative projects. Exploring interesting places has never been easier – complemented with attracting images, information about its funding and impact, and founders’ quotes. To quickly navigate the sites and their stories, we have sorted them into four groups: Soil, Sea, Ice and Fire.

Understanding sustainability

*The Anceu Coliving in Spain has many activities where they also work with the local community*

The new trend of digital nomadism is about new sustainable approaches for the countryside. Many digital nomads in Europe have found a new home in former or abandoned mansions, farms or houses. Instead of building new houses and creating an unnecessary carbon footprint, the precious cultural heritage is revitalised and ready for new settlers. Many ambitious and inspiring founders understand what technology and digitalisation can bring to the countryside. As co-founder of Project Bay, Toni Gurski said: “A supposedly structurally weak rural region can become a technology hotspot through the shift to digitalisation and thus lose its image as a purely agricultural and touristic region.” By settling in the countryside, digital nomads bring life, new skills and knowledge and support the local community by buying local food, developing new local projects and making new connections.

Some coliving places, such as Anceu Coliving or Coconat, support working with the local community by organising unique festivals (Rural Makers, Coconauts programme).

Coliving – when young people return to their roots

Recently, many European rural areas have experienced the ageing of the population. Many young people have moved to the bigger urban areas. Established good practices and stories of digital nomads show us that new and innovative solutions already exist. Colivings are spreading into the rural areas from overcrowded cities.

Based on our survey, also published in the Nomazine, the cost of living is the most important aspect for digital nomads when choosing a place to live, followed by a reliable internet connection and a strong community.

The Nomazine serves as a first step towards the guide for attracting digital nomads in the countryside, which will be published in autumn 2023. It will be aimed at tourism workers, youth workers and other decision-makers interested in bringing the philosophy of digital nomadism to their areas. In May 2023, a training activity will be implemented in Iž, Croatia, which will help us to develop a strategy for attracting young digital nomads to the countryside and improving rural youth work. As recognised in the survey, 90 % of digital nomads would prefer to have a local facilitator to help them settle down in the area. Within the project, we will explore how youth organisations, including youth centres, can make a change by attracting digital nomads to the rural areas.

Explore NOMAZINE!

NOMAZINEDownload

IMMERSE INTO THE STORIES OF DIGITAL NOMADS

Are you interested, how digital nomads feel about the countryside? Explore 11 stories of digital nomads who found their new home in the countryside!

LEARN ABOUT NEW APPROACHES FOR THE COUNTRYSIDE

Would you like to find inspiration for your place? Then our magazine Nomazine is a great starting point with 20 selected good practices from all over Europe!

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Great support is opening up for initial steps towards IP protection

Posted on January 7, 2021 by Angela Ivanova in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

INI-Novation Bulgaria is proud to be partner of the so-called LEARN IP project consortium. The LEARN-IP project targets the development and exploitation of an online training programme to support cultural heritage managers and cultural tourism actors with the effective use of digital technologies to check for compliance with Intellectual Property Right (IPR) regulations.
IPR generation has hardly been included in the curricula of formal cultural heritage and tourism education. This has to be changed, because IPR can not only protect rights, but can also be used to develop new business opportunities for those involved. European IPR owners need access to effective ways of protecting their values internationally for growth and competitiveness to avoid that the economic and social potential of IPRs gets lost. They need skills to identify, protect, apply and valorise it. When their ideas, brands and products are pirated and counterfeited, expertise and jobs are affected.

This is exactly where our LEARN-IP comes in: the training programme will act as an online “guided tour” through IPR regulations and will indicate what can be done to legally protect your property, expertise and knowledge. The training will also show when professional help is recommended.This is considered to be very important, because in the professional world very often there is also a financial issue, since legal advice for IPR can be expensive and can hardly be covered by smaller institutions.

In 2021, great support is opening up for financing initial steps towards IP protection: The “Ideas Powered for Business SME Fund” is a 20 million Euro grant scheme created to help European small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) access their intellectual property rights. Supported by the European Commission and the EUIPO, the “Ideas Powered for Business SME Fund” is aimed at businesses that wish to develop their IP strategies and protect their IP rights, at national, regional or EU level. The fund is covering IP pre-diagnostic services (IP scan) and/or trade mark and design applications. Each SME can be reimbursed up to a maximum of EUR 1 500. More information can be found on the Ideas Powered for business hub: https://euipo.europa.eu/ohimportal/en/online-services/sme-fund.

If you are interested in the LEARN-IP project and if you would need support in setting up your IP strategy, please contact us under info@ini-novation.com.

UNCAP Consortium meets in Lund

Posted on May 15, 2016 by Angela Ivanova in eCare, Projects, Projects | Leave a comment

May 2016 started inspiring with a Nordic flair. The UNCAP Consortium gathered in Lund (Sweden) for a two days project meeting. The meeting was important for all technical partners because of the finalization of the UNCAP Box prototype. Even more, the IPR issues were coming into the agenda. INI-Novation is the responsible partner for the market take-up of the project’s results but also for providing solutions in the area of IPR and licensing.

In Lund, the attention of the consortium was on the technical implementation of the UNCAP Box. The whole team of technical experts, members of the consortium, attended the meeting. The discussion was quite intensive because of the importance to finalize the prototype. It has to be entered for a pilot testing in the second half of 2016.

At that period, all UNCAP pilots, consisting mainly of care centers, care homes and hospices from all over Europe, have to implement the UNCAP box in their activities and introduce the system to their patients and their relatives.

The technical team of UNCAP at the meeting in Lund

Then, the second part of the UNCAP project will start with analyzing the impact from different perspectives: care improvement, life style and financial benefits.

In this regard, the consortium discussed several items very relevant for the market uptake: marketing research – analysis and studies in the field of e-Health and e-Care about user behavior and user needs.

The INI-Novation team at the right discussing the further steps (Lund, 2016)

Angela Ivanova (INI) discussed the progress of the impact analysis on Business and Financial Models and presented INI’s progress report “Exploitation and market replication”.

One of the main discussed topics were the process chain analysis of the UNCAP products that INI has already identified in its analysis work. A snapshot of market research findings was presented and the criteria of user acceptance were discussed. The topic is directly related with the technical implementation of the UNCAP Box and is complementing the work of the technicians to set-up the UNCAP product at the very begging with the possible desired functions or possible user training.

After two intensive working days, our host and partner from Sweden has organized an intensive and interesting sightseeing in Lund. It is always wonderful when we have time in addition to the project meetings to enjoy also the place where we are!