SDA, Markku Markkula, President of CoR, Malina Edreva, CoR member, and representatives of universities, startups, young ambassadors of innovations and innovation facilitators met today to discuss the synergies, needs and opportunities for innovations in Sofia. We focused on the role of local government to provide a favourable environment and foster open innovation by means of the new Smart Specialisation Strategy and activities like the upcoming first Sofia hackathon, the young generation as a natural carrier of entrepreneurship and the reasons why Sofia is a great place to start a business.