408 PROJECTS WANT TO TAKE OFF WITH

Up to eighty-four winning projects will share prizes worth CZK 9 million
This year’s edition newly features a special student category
More projects registered by men this time
Registration for regional events has begun 

Prague, 9 May 2013 – Registration for the third edition of T-Mobile’s Takeoffs project closed at midnight on Sunday, 5 May. An expert jury will now choose the best projects out of the record number of 408 registrants. Out of this number, 316 signed up for the general category and 92 for the new student category. Beginning entrepreneurs in Prague were the most active, while the lowest number of projects was registered in the Hradec Králové region. 

“After a year, T-Mobile and its partners have again provided an opportunity for business start-ups throughout the country to receive support. A number of them are in regions with high unemployment rates where job opportunities are relatively rare. We are therefore trying to do our best to help them and facilitate their starting position,” says Petra Pavičová, Corporate Social Responsibility Manager at T-Mobile. 

In the third edition of Takeoffs there are a number of interesting points:

• Men were the more active this year, registering 210 projects in total.
• The largest number of plans was submitted by business start-ups from Prague (108), followed by the South Moravia and the Moravia-Silesia regions. Participants in South Moravia came up with 41 interesting new ideas and those in Moravia-Silesia registered 38. Conversely, the smallest number of projects was entered in the Hradec Králové (9) and Liberec (13) regions.
• With a total of 42,618 unique visitors, the number of visits to the website during the contest has nearly doubled compared to last year’s edition. An increase in the number of visitors has also been recorded by the project’s Facebook page used by the operator for a marketing campaign. 

Prizes that will be awarded in the third edition are of no less interest. This year, a total of eighty-four winners have an opportunity to receive prizes in the aggregate value of nearly CZK 9 million, which can be quite strong motivation. The prizes in this edition were donated by T-Mobile and project partners Česká spořitelna, Samsung, the Union of Towns and Municipalities of the Czech Republic, Jobs.cz, KnowHowKlub and Zalozfirmu.cz. 

Just like last year, the most active age group is between 26 and 40. Most projects concern health, care and assistance, free-time activities and all kinds of consultancy, as well as education and the broadest variety of services that one can imagine. This year, we can thus look forward to the launch of business that will offer, for example, healthcare applications for mobile phones, cookery courses, day-care centres for children and the elderly, running and cycling courses, photography services, a ceramics workshop, a beading school, a recycling studio and a special path for healthy barefoot walking. 

Contestants and the general public are now able to sign up for ten regional events, which will include a number of interesting lectures on current topics connected with starting a business. Participants can thus look forward to, for example, new developments in internet marketing, modern technologies and finance. These will be followed by workshops and regional jury meetings. Last year’s winners will also share their own experience and advise the attendees on where in the given area they can receive various kinds of information. At the end of each event, the region’s winners will always be announced. 

Out of the winning projects in individual regions, the public will be able to choose a national winner by voting on the project website from 8 July to 18 August 2013. 

More information is available here.

T-Mobile Czech Republic, a member of the international telecommunications group Deutsche Telekom, has almost 6.2 million customers, the number-one operator in the Czech market. T-Mobile is an integrated operator: in addition to telecommunications services, it offers comprehensive ICT solutions not only for companies, but also for other organizations and individuals. It provides outstanding services in the high-speed network, which was proved repeatedly by benchmark testing performed by umlaut (former P3) with Best-in-Test seal.

T-Mobile Czech Republic places emphasis on taking a responsible approach to the environment and society. It adheres to fair business practices, helps beneficial applications and services to see the light of day, supports non-profit organizations, small businesses and individuals, and lends a helping hand whenever crisis situations arise. The company’s employees serve as volunteers in many places across the entire Czech Republic.

More information about the company is available at www.t-mobile.cz, www.t-press.cz (the portal for journalists) and www.t-mobile.cz/pomahame (information on the company’s CSR activities).

Contact details of the press unit: press@t-press.cz.