Women's Entrepreneurship
First Peer-Learning Workshop in Women’s Entrepreneurship
The first Peer-Learning Workshop in Women’s Entrepreneurship took place in Prague from 14 to 16 May at the newly opened co-working space HubHub ARA. The event gathered 60 experts in women’s entrepreneurship from 33 COSME countries. They comprised leading representatives from ministries and governmental agencies supporting SMEs as well as businesses associations, NGOs, investors, female entrepreneurs, WE ambassadors and the European Commission.
The objective of the workshop was to identify specific solutions and actionable steps for some of the key challenges women face in their entrepreneurial journey. The workshop followed a storyline that led the participants from challenges identified in the pre-workshop survey through elements of these challenges all the way to final solutions addressing the elements. As a result, participants conceived 15 solutions with defined key enablers, key stakeholders, actionable steps for implementation as well as possible hindrances to be aware of.
Some of the final solutions were:
• Funds for WE
• Entrepreneurial role models and mentors
• Umbrella networks and women supporting women
• (Local) networks of mentors and their promotion in media
• Pan-European organisation, one-stop-shop, single digital gateway
• Lifelong education in entrepreneurship
• Enhancing financial literacy
Participants were highly engaged also thanks to the variety of creative methods, co-design techniques and tools that were used throughout the workshop. Besides that, the participants appreciated the opportunities to enjoy networking with peers from diverse backgrounds, sharing expertise and best practices. The project team will carefully analyse the outcomes of the first workshop . The outcomes will serve to determine themes and topics for the next workshops taking place in 2020 in other European cities. The next workshops will further help identify the most pressing topics in women’s entrepreneurship. Check out the project newsletter related to this workshop!
