TAKEOFFS OF THE YEAR TO HELP FOR THE FOURTH TIME

Valuable prizes for all winners
Main prize of CZK 150,000 for the winner of the national round
Free educative webinars

Prague, 3 March 2014 –T-Mobile will support start-up businesses within the Takeoffs of the Year project for the fourth year in a row. This year, valuable prizes will be distributed among up to 58 competing projects. Registration of projects starts today and will be open until Monday, 24 March. For the first time, everybody interested in this topic can view the educative video “How to Draft a Project”, which was developed within the Takeoffs online webinar. The faces of this year’s edition of the competition are last year’s winners – Roman Sterly and Jana Šmitmajerová. 

“Together with its partners, T-Mobile has again decided to support start-up businesses endeavouring to reduce unemployment in regions where the situation is very grim,” says Petra Pavičová, Social Responsibility Manager at T-Mobile, adding: “We are very pleased that the popularity of Takeoffs has been rising every year and an ever increasing number of competing projects are not only original but also their quality is very high. What also makes us happy is that within the project we have succeeded in uniting people who are interested in continuing to support business on the local level.” 

In the three years of the competition’s history, participants have registered 1,111 projects while prizes and services in the value of more than CZK 21.5 million have been distributed among 170 winners. Similarly as in previous years, regional rounds will be organised in all 14 regions of the Czech Republic, where competing projects will be assessed by six-member specialist regional juries composed of representatives of Česká spořitelna, T-Mobile, universities, regional chambers of commerce, the media and winners of the previous editions of the Takeoffs competition. 

Main innovations of the fourth edition

• free educative webinars for everybody interested in running their own business
• very attractive and valuable prizes
• new online registration and evaluation system
• current topics, new presenters at regional workshops
• cooperation with regional chambers of commerce and several universities 

Rewards for participating businesses
Winners will again receive packages of telecommunications services intended for their businesses free of charge for one year, as well as tablets and support in the form of specialist consultancy. Similarly as in the previous editions, they will also be provided with a financial injection to start their businesses in the amount of CZK 30,000 in the case of regional winners and CZK 150,000 for the national winner. All winners can also look forward to support in the form of publicity for their projects. 

As in previous years, the main specialist partners of the project in 2014 are such leading companies as Česká spořitelna, Samsung, Agentura Najisto and Jobs.cz. Since the first edition of the project, specialist consultancy has been provided by KnowHowKlub and Zalozfirmu.cz. T-Mobile has now teamed with ipodnikatel.cz and Canon and regional chambers of commerce that will provide their support within this year’s edition of Takeoffs. Prizes to be awarded this year, which are provided by the partners, will therefore again be very attractive. 

How to register
Potential contestants wishing to participate in the competition can register their projects on the competition’s dedicated website beginning today. Those who are not sure about how to prepare their projects can view an educative video offering detailed instructions, which is also available on the website. Throughout the registration stage, contestants can also receive specialist online help. Subsequently, eleven regional seminars, featuring a number of very “hands-on” workshops, will again be organised within the competition. They will be conducted by specialists in, for example, internet marketing, modern technologies, sales, social networks, thought maps and finance. Useful information will also be provided by winners of the previous editions of Takesoffs of the Year. Participants will have an opportunity to consult their projects with mentors during one-on-one consultations. Registration in the seminars is free and will start on 15 March. Within the regional seminars, competing projects will be presented by their originators and evaluated by the regional juries. 

The public will then pick the national winner from among the winners of the regional rounds. Again this year, votes can be cast on the website at http://www.rozjezdyroku.cz/, in the period from 4 June to 25 June 2014.               

 More information is available here. 

About Takeoffs
A total of 408 projects were registered in Takeoffs of the Year 2013, the third edition of the competition intended for start-up businesses. Eighty-four regional winners in two categories received prizes in the total amount of CZK 9 million. Similarly as in previous editions, the most active contestants were in Prague and Central Bohemia, with a significant number of projects originating also in Moravia. Specialist advice provided by T-Mobile employees and partners of the competition in the fields of marketing, setting-up of companies and online marketing is of considerable assistance in starting a business. In the three years of the competition’s existence, T-Mobile and its partners have provided support to 170 winners, distributing among them prizes and services in the total value of more than CZK 21.5 million.

Detailed information about the project 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.