As part of the dissemination campaign of the WOMCA project, I-Box Create S.L. organized together with the Instituto Universitario Polibienestar (University of Valencia) a 1-day conference entitled “Entrepreneurship in terms of gender: from managing fears to the challenge of reality- WOMCA”. The conference took place on October 30th 2018, at the Faculty of Economics of the University of Valencia.
The conference program had 4 main parts: 1) entrepreneur women in the capitalist system; 2) introduction of the WOMCA project; 3) alternative spaces for female entrepreneurship (devoted to companies within the social economy) and 4) the challenges at the first stages of entrepreneurship.
Several women who had created companies in both, capitalist and social economies, explained their experience as leaders of main entrepreneurs’ associations and also as entrepreneur women. The aim of the conference was to highlight which are the most common challenges that female entrepreneurs face when starting a business and, oh the other hand, give some examples of successful social companies led by women. In this sense, it was very interesting to positively verify that most important aspects addressed by the WOMCA project were commented during the conference: the need for having mentors that help you to break the fears; the need for stress-management techniques and advice on how to get a life-work balance; as well as to develop networks with other women or the capacity of creating stakeholders’ maps, among others. Many speakers highlighted also how important is having female referents and someone that guides you in the amazing and hard way to entrepreneurship. It was also commented the usefulness of developing associations related to entrepreneurship.
The first block had speakers from the most important entrepreneurs associations: EVAP (Association of Women Entrepreneurs and Professionals from Valencia), AJEV (Young Entrepreneurs Association from Valencia), Fundadoras Club (a Spanish association devoted to 
deliver regional, national and European repercussion awards to Spanish women entrepreneurs) and Nuttralia (a private company led by two women working in the nourishing sector). Speakers could explain their main obstacles and most common errors in entrepreneurship, a kind of “lessons learned”. All in all, they highlighted the need for mentors and events where women can share their experiences and adventures in the world of entrepreneurship.
The next part was devoted to the WOMCA project. The Spanish partners, Dramblys and I-Box Create S.L. explained the project and the contents of the course that will take place in Innsbruck (AU) in December 2018.
Later on, during the 2nd workshop of the conference, focused on social companies led by women, three different companies were introduced: one from the TICs sector (La Tribu), one from the learning sector (Formigues Liles) and one from the agrifood sector (Monvital). The three speakers pointed out the personal satisfaction of taking social projects forward, and the common feeling that in the near future, more and more social companies will arise.
Finally, there was a round table about the challenges during the first stages of entrepreneurship, with participants from research centers working on social entrepreneurship. Most important learning from this block was how an innovative and a social view of entrepreneurship can lead the community development.
The event had a great impact, with more than 150 attendants and several local and national media and organizations talking about it. This was probably thanks to the chosen speakers, who were important entrepreneurial women with strong networking behind and also many women representing some of the greatest regional entrepreneurs’ associations.