EWA participants in Czech Republic are improving their projects during Masterclass event and preparing themselves to change the agrifood system
More than 50 candidates applied for the EWA 2022 accelerator in Czech Republic. After a long decision-making process, dedicated jury selected 10 business ideas and offered 10 women the opportunity to develop them.
Empowering Women in Agrifood (EWA) programme is being run in the Czech Republic for the second time in 2022 and is being implemented by a non-profit organization cats2cats, which supports women. It’s also constantly working to remove stereotypes associated with gender, diversity or age.
Challenge and learning
On the 14th of July 2022, the EWA programme was officially launched through the Matchmaking event. In the first part of a meeting, organizers focused on presenting the schedule of the entire programme, including a closer acquaintance with the educational activities and their course. Then there was the turn of the presentation of mentors and projects.
The second part of the Matchmaking event was dedicated to the presentation of Design Thinking method presented by PavlĂna LouĹľenská, an experienced marketing manager. During Design Thinking practice, EWA Mentees could practically try out a more systematic strategy for introducing their products or services to the market.
Matchmaking was concluded by reminding important contacts and networking.
On the 6th of September, the non-profit organization cats2cats organized an online EWA Masterclass on the topic "Why do we need to know our competitors?".
The first part of the event was held by Petra Kubálková, head of cats2cats, who in her presentation indicated reasons why it is necessary to analyze the competition and how to do it - 4 types of competition, creation of competition profiles, SWOT analysis and competition marketing.
The theoretical part was followed by presentations of individual projects. All projects had the task to fill the table from the Lean Canvas tool (competitors) and during the second part of the Masterclass session each of the participants picked 2 main competitors and defined their strengths and weaknesses. Results of the task were presented to the group and received feedback along with recommendations.
The training points of a Masterclass event are clear - presentation skills and analytical skills to produce research. According to coordinators and mentors engaged in EWA programme the participants keep showing their progress and put in a lot of efforts to create a successful startup in the agrifood sector.
What is still ahead of us?
Mentees are up to the change the agrifood sector
The Masterclass was followed by two online webinars focused on the definition of a customer or client and one webinar on the topic "Law for startups & budding entrepreneurs", again through the connection of the theoretical and practical parts. Now, EWA Mentees look forward to marketing webinars that will include everything for successful branding. How to think about a marketing strategy? How to communicate on social networks? How to create a quality post plan?
„The same cannot be said during the next webinar.The next webinar, at the end of October will undoubtedly be challenging, but it is necessary. Participants will upgrade their business plans together with an expert (5C analysis)“ – said Petra Kubálková, head of cats2cats.
The last meeting will be the Pre-final Masterclass. At this meeting, entrepreneurs will use all their previous and above all new knowledge they have acquired during the previous months. For the first time, they will be able to experience presenting their project on stage in front of a jury.
All that remains is to learn from the feedback and practice and practice and practice for the final Pitching…
About CATS2CATS
Non-profit organization founded by group of women. The mission of cats2cats is to support every woman, not only in Czech Republic. The strongest point of cats2cats is discovering new areas where women are still invisible and bringing the topic of the agrifood area to mainstream society.
Learn more about CATS2CATS on their web page.
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