On the 22ndof May 2019, I-Box Create conducted a workshop in Castellon to disseminate the activities and results of the WOMCA project.
The event took place in the headquarters of the women association REINVETHADAS in order to present the project to its real target group – young entrepreneur women willing to become mentors and young women who have no or little experience in entrepreneurial activities and are prone to be mentored.
The event was attended by 21 women, most of them parts of the business support programme at REINVENTHADAS, but also experienced business women, young women interested in getting inspired by more experienced entrepreneurs and representatives from social enterprises interested in the project results and in adopting the mentoring scheme developed.
At 9.15 Noemi Alese from I-Box welcomed the participants and introduced them to the project using a little ice-breaking activity that had been prepared to get to know the participants better and create a relaxed and trustworthy environment. The participants sitting in a circle introduced themselves and the reason why they chose to attend the event. Participants with sound experience in business management were then asked to express the main fears and obstacles they have encountered and how they overcame them to start up their business. Younger participants with no or little entrepreneurial experience were asked to describe what frightened them the most when thinking about starting up their own business.
These introductory activities led the way to the second part of the workshop in which Mireia Alonso and Noemi Alese from I-Box, illustrated to the participants the achievements of the WOMCA project. The first two outputs were presented and an introduction to the MOOC was also done. The attendees demonstrated great interest exactly because the products of the project address the real fears and obstacles that young women face when deciding to start up their business.
The coffee break has been a moment to share opinions and hear from the participants which were the best tools and activities that the WOMCA project developed in their opinion. In fact, after having illustrated the project outputs, this moment was helpful to get a more personal and deeper opinion from the participants.
The third part of the workshop has been dedicated to one of the activities that can be found in the WOMCA training course (Intellectual Output 2). Participants were asked to think of one of their main fears. All together we then found three possible solutions to the fears that were most common. Most of the participants in fact indicated the fear of losing money and the fear of failure as their main concern. The main solutions came from the present business women especially; they explained how the initial investment in a start-up is mainly an investment of time. At the beginning it is almost certain that you will lose your money but there are ways to save and spend money in a wise and thoughtful way. They expressed the importance of getting a good network of clients and stakeholders as one of the main tools to succeed.
We concluded the event by giving the stage to one of the participants in the training week in Innsbruck organised by the partners in the framework of the project. Esther Piriz sent us a video in which she described the experience she lived in Innsbruck with the other participants in the training. She described how enriching it was and how surprising it has been to start the training journey as an individual and finish it as member of a big family.