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Export Express was a great success. 29 companies from Estonia and Latvia participated in a free export preparation campaign. Mentoring, bootcamps, trade missions and more than 330'000EUR of EU funding.

On 28 and 29 March Ventspils High Technology Park held a closing event of the business support programme Export Express gathering SMEs from Estonia and Latvia which were admitted to the program in March 2018. On the first day of the event guest speakers like Enno Ence from MILZU! , a cereal flakes manufacturing company, Gints Mednis from Sonarworks , the company behind digital calibration software, and Ričards Fomrats from PlayGineering Systems , a sports video analytics company, shared their experience in export development, expanding the business and building quality business relations. On the second day the participants took part in practical workshops, one of which was dedicated to finding new export contacts, and the other – to the basics of product photography where a professional photographer demonstrated what it takes to make high-quality photos. The Export Express programme was implemented under the Interreg Estonia-Latvia cross-border project “Brave Idea Support Programme” (or B-Idea), No. Est-Lat 47. Participants of the programme were able to take part in 4 bootcamps with exciting lectures, master classes and individual mentoring sessions throughout the year, as well as 3 trade missions to Scandinavia, resulting in business development, new contacts and successful export deals. In total 30 companies participated in the programme – 12 from Estonia and 18 from Latvia. 28 companies completed the training programme with positive results: wood products manufacturers Duck Woodworks , Snores , Gravtex , Wooch , Wesse , food and beverage manufacturers Lahhentagge , Trikātas piens , Andre Juustufarm , FIE Raivo Teder , Saaregurmee , Icegarden , Kainaiži , Siidrikoda , glass and ceramics manufacturers Stikla māja and Rebeka , jewelry manufacturer Luminée , biomedicine manufacturers BioCC and Alternative Plants , steel products manufacturers Gizzo and Daupro , IT-systems and service companies SunGis , Edurio , DronePlan , Overly , and Amber Systems , wind turbine manufacturer TUGE , food waste processing company Festera Bioboxes and portable micro-houses manufacturer APB .

On the first day of Export Express 4th bootcamp the main topic was fundraising where experienced mentors – Jelena Zhovnikova (Fundwise), Kertu Aruoja, Andra Somelar (Baltic Innovation Agency) and Aleksander Tõnnisson (Buildit Accelerator), shared their knowledge with new entrepreneurs. Later, a site visit to IT company “Wunder Latvia” and to metal processing company “Valpro” followed to meet the representatives and to hear their story of success in business. During the evening the communication training session with interactive and gamification techniques was conducted to develop negotiation skills and to enhances the use of various aspects and elements of it in business negotiations, to promote export capability, business scaling and quality long-term customer relationships. The second day of Export Express 4th bootcamp started with the lecture “The Art of Successful Pitching” by Aleksander Tõnnisson and afterwards all companies participated in teamwork, based on the lecture, trained their pitching skills and received valuable feedback from the experts and other colleagues. The last stage of the second day was hands-on workshop about basics of product photography where companies took a chance to make high-quality pictures of their products with the advice and guidance of professional. Now, the project management team is already preparing for the final event of the Export Express programme, on April 2019. But companies are still welcome to scale up the progress by mentoring sessions.

In October and November, Latvian and Estonian companies, participating in the business support programme Export Express, went on trade missions to Finland and Sweden. During 15-17th October companies participated in trade mission to Finland. The aim of the trade mission was for companies to learn about Finnish market and exports, as well as to meet potential cooperation partners. For the trade mission to Finland export consulting company Gateway&Partners organized 34 meetings and the companies have returned from their business trips with positive feedback, potential business opportunities and learnings.