What we do
Research & Development
The core of any Institute is R&D, place where ideas grow. In order to better align activities of Internet Institute with the R&D department, we developed a new methodology – Organic R&D.
Organic R&D supports the growth of the idea just like you would support a growth of a butterfly:
- Ensure the necessary resources for growth in a “coccoon”
- Develop a natural (business) equilibrium with the environment
- When it’s time you let it fly
Innovation management
IM Wikipedia:
“Innovation management is the discipline of managing processes in innovation.”
This is not Internet Institute definition of Innovation management. We don’t discipline our ideas, they are born in a struggle. Words like heated discussion, brainstorming and controlled chaos come to mind. We don’t manage or control the process, and this is why our ideas have wow effect.
To the Internet Institute team this is a very comfortable tradeoff.
Project planning, implementation and management
As a non-profit organization, Internet Institute is mainly involved in ICT4D [Information and Communication Technologies for Development] projects designed and intended to provide systematic response to targeted sectors’ strategic needs:
- Access to finance,
- Improved national and regional business environment,
- Increased inter-sectoral and intra-sectoral communication, networking and knowledge/information sharing as preconditions of increased social impact.
Their primary objectives are:
- Systematic building of targeted sectors’ capacities to successfully respond to their challenges – training and education online and offline.
- Create and cultivate a stable audience of regular ICT users.
- Promotion of ICT deployment and implementation through technical and technological support and assistance – facilitation of World Wide Web presence – including provision of free software solutions.
- Creation of virtual spaces required for unlimited information and knowledge exchange and networking [portal for development].
Current and planned project activities relate to creation of relevant info and data repositories [detailed information on development projects, expert information and studies, etc.] to facilitate development activities’ coordination, education and training programs [online training, distance learning, advanced business services and consultancies], relevant research and publishing.
Expected outcomes include:
- Increase in strategic skills and capacities of targeted sectors = economic development + employment.
- Integration and coordination of development activities on the national and regional level;
- Development as precondition for foreign investments.
- Regional integration.
Education & Training
Our capacity-building and knowledge transfer activities involve targeted training and consulting services that:
- Provide guidance on how to develop ideas into successful project proposals that will receive funding;
- Prevent that contracts are lost during negotiations or during implementation due to inexperience in project financial and/or legal management.
- Facilitate inclusion in an international environment of collaborative projects.
- Strengthen general project development, planning, implementation and monitoring skills.
Our program is particularly focused on opportunities provided through European funding, securing that the most important obstacles to higher level of participation are overcome:
- Lack of expertise or knowledge in explicit form, including lack of readily available explicit knowledge in local language, lack of documentation, or insufficient documentation, as well as difficulty in finding peers in relevant areas to help out at the moment that a problem arises and needs to be solved. It also means lack of systematic handling of knowledge where handling means gathering, evaluating, structuring, and disseminating knowledge that is shared among peers and across projects.
- Reluctance to participate by being intimidated by the bureaucratic processes involved in proposal preparation and project reporting. Even though the experience is often lacking, most SMEs cannot afford to learn only from own mistakes.
- Need for the change in business culture – Currently prevalent business culture is one of exclusion, preventing SMEs to realize the benefits of collaboration within an international consortium of partners.
Event Management
In organization of events we ensure 360 degrees coverage through careful and precise planning, efficient and effective implementation and meticulous review and assessment.
The work begins with the initial idea. Tossing it around and brainstorming results in the first rough conceptual draft that is weighed and assessesed for feasibility. Many ideas are abandoned at this stage as lacking in potential. Those that receive the thumbs-up move into the inception stage.
In the inception stage the initial idea is developed into concept containing purpose, objectives, general target audience, the overall desired look and feel of the future event, rough estimates of duration and dates, etc.
In the planning stage the prepared concept is worked out into a detailed project plan, including work distribution, team structure, critical success factors, budget, timelines, milestones, risk management and measurement criteria. Our own experiences, but also lessons learned and best practices of numerous other similar events will be used to develop full understanding of the potential challenges, identify limitations and establish operating parameters and procedures that will result in successful event. Research will be conducted to establish wish lists of partners, sponsors, patrons, venues, speakers, side events, etc.
Once the project plan has been completed, individual staff members begin with realization of various aspects of implementation. This is the stage of focused coordination and intense communication to ensure that the quality of the deliverables in progress is constantly assessed. Urgent tasks get immediate attention and response. Risks are continually monitored, solutions are devised and applied and adjustments are made as needed to ensure success. Regular meetings are held to secure continuous and clear communication between project staff working on related tasks, and between our team and suppliers. The implementation stage culminates with the event itself, when all planned and implemented aspects come together in success.
The event management process concludes with the review phase. Effectiveness is measured according to identified performance metrics and budget and other relevant data are compared to expected results. Project deliverables are reviewed and accounted for. Lessons learned from the project are documented so that they can be applied easily to future tasks and projects. Project files are reviewed, completed and archived in an orderly way that facilitates retrieval if project information is needed later.
Marketing & PR
We use creative design solutions to enhance visual communication for our clients and in our projects and activities. Taking care that all project materials and outputs bear the same, unique aesthetic mark, we ensure unified and recognizable visual identity.
All our design solutions are carefully thought through and tested on team members and external members to ensure that they:
Are aesthetically pleasing and attractive to people of various backgrounds and interests,
Ensure that the project’s overall message or aim is conveyed across to the viewer without being too literal,
Stimulate viewers’ interest in the project/company/activity.
In addition to designing the appearance, we also cover the production side – including text and copy editing, preparation of textual material, printing, multimedia, web, etc.
