Who conviced the Dragons? – Dragons’ Den Competition at ERB

We received many applications of very good quality and it was hard for the jury to decide on a selection of applicants that would be invited to Stockholm. Four very engaged think tanks were invited to present their projects.

The Dragons in Stockholm were Susanne Ydstedt, Amanda Wollstadt, Christian Ekström and Michael Jäger. They were hard to convince and asked tough questions.

The first project was presented by Razi Ginsberg from Ayn Rand Centre UK. They are planning a series of short clips in defense of the most unjustly vilified people and ideas in today’s society covering some of the most badly misrepresented fields and presenting a contrasting, positive view of the individuals and industries that make the world a better place. They will create 10 clips, to begin with, defending much-maligned industries such as tech, pharma, and energy, as well as private education, property rights, and more. The series will be presented by Hollywood star Mark Pellegrino (Lost, Supernatural), who will promote it to his audience of 500k+ followers on Twitter, and hundreds of thousands on other platforms. Clips will be up to 60 seconds long, making them compatible with all social media platforms, as well as the highly popular YouTube shorts.

Simon Sarevski presented via Zoom as he could not come to Stockholm. He represented his think tank Libertania and presented their project “Cook & Liberty”.

“Classical Liberal and libertarian institutions around the globe spend too much of their valuable time and energy on educating the public. As important as education is, education takes time. And in the modern-day, where we are flooded with information and clickbait content and an attention span of the viewer that keeps on dropping, we need to take a different approach to spread the message of liberty. In the “Cook & Liberty” we will invite people from the liberty movement for a laidback experience, where we will discuss the topics of the day and the fields in which the guests are experts, while in the meantime the lunch will be prepared.

But because this is not going to be a formal event, we can talk about food and culture, all in order to appeal to the not-so-serious younger generation. And because we will interview already successful individuals from established institutions, we will reach a necessary audience for this to be a success.”

Hubertus Hofkirchner represented his organization Meetup and their plan to discuss Austrian economics in Austria.

“Our project involves the organization of a monthly meetup “Salon” about the Austrian School of Economics with initial presentations by stimulating guests, appropriate for general participants with a beginner’s to intermediate level of knowledge, and especially attractive for young students irrespective of their field of study. Our main agenda and mission is the dissemination and discussion of the ideas and concepts of Austrian School economists and philosophers. Our format seeks to trigger an active debate between participants, fostering long-term critical thinking and independent opinion formation.”

The fourth competitor was Adri Nurellari from the Albanian Liberal Institute.

“The Albanian Liberal Institute would like to organize a tour of 10 seminars in the 10 main public and private universities in 7 different towns of Albania. Inspired by the successful model and experience of the “Free Market Road Show” this project will aim at popularizing free-market-oriented literature and at identifying and recruiting like-minded youngsters. In addition, ALI proposes to gather a compilation of 20 free-market-oriented books translated into Albanian and make them available to the students and faculty of 10 private and public universities in Albania.
The seminars will also serve as an event for the promotion of liberalism but also as a formal ceremony during which ALI will donate the collection of free-market books to the libraries of these universities. ALI is putting forward this proposal for Think Tank Dragons’ Den” competition in order to cover the cost for the purchase of the books and the logistical costs for the organization of 10 seminars around the country.”

The Dragons discussed the presentations and answers; it was a difficult task to find the best project and in the end, they decided to split the price money in order to award two winners. On the second day of the European Resource Bank Meeting, the Winners of the Dragons’ Den Competition were announced during the gala dinner at the Nationalmuseet.

The first price of 4,000€ goes to Ardi Nurellari from the Albanian Liberal Institute.

The second price of 2,000€ goes to Simon Sarevski from Libertania. As he was not present in Stockholm, Dragon Christian Ekström took care of the cheque.

We congratulate the winners and sincerely hope that all projects will be realized! We also thank our sponsor, the Global Philanthropic Trust, for the generous prize money and for continuously supporting free-market projects presented at the Dragons’ Den Competition.

More articles on the European Resource Bank Meeting 2022

Welcome Freedom Fighters to Stockholm! – 19. European Resource Bank Meeting 2022 – 1st day

Intensive Discussions, New Ideas, and Success – 19th ERB – 2nd day