- On this first day, several initiatives related to equality, cooperation and entrepreneurship have been presented.
- A total of 8 speakers have participated in the presentation of this inaugural day.
19/06/2023, Brussels. Today, Monday 19th June from 10:00 to 13:00 CEST, the first of the five days of the online event “Opportunities for green and digital entrepreneurship and European funding” was held, an inaugural day focused on equality, cooperation and entrepreneurship.
These webinars, which will run through 28th June, aim to develop innovative and inclusive approaches to address women’s entrepreneurship, their participation and the acquisition of entrepreneurial skills. The webinars focus on opportunities linked to green and digital entrepreneurship, actions to support female entrepreneurship, as well as funding opportunities offered by the European funding framework. These conferences are organized, in addition to Finnova, by different partners such as the Cabildo de Fuerteventura, a body aligned with SDGs such as gender equality or decent work, Woman 4 Tech, an open innovation tool to identify disruptive start-ups and raise awareness of the importance of self-entrepreneurship as a driver of employment and by Asociación Fundadoras, an organisation that supports female entrepreneurship by creating a strong community to give visibility and reward women in the workplace and entrepreneurship.
Today’s event began with a presentation by Juan Manuel Revuelta, CEO of Finnova, in which he highlighted the opportunity that NextGenerationEU funds represent to strengthen the role of women in the economy. In turn, Revuelta highlighted the collaboration of Asociación Fundadoras to achieve this goal and also mentioned projects such as “Woman for Tech” and “Erasmus + GIRLS4TECH”, created as tools to promote women’s careers in fields such as science and mathematics. Julia Rodríguez, a member of Finnova’s European projects department, took over the webinar to present the “100 Women Plus” project, a project that organizes the online event and seeks cooperation between Europe and Africa. As Rodriguez explained, the project has several objectives, such as improving women’s leadership and entrepreneurship and promoting cultural understanding. For this purpose, the project is structured around different activities: webinars, exhibitions of projects carried out by women, discussion sessions and a conference on the impact of the project.
Next, Carla García, European project manager at Finnova, spoke about the opportunities offered by European funding and described the main funds and their scope. García described the main European Union funds (Multiannual Financial Framework 2021-2027, NextGeneration EU, cohesion funds, among others) and ended her speech by explaining investment programs related to the EU strategy with Africa, such as the EU-Africa Global Gateway Investment Package.
The next presentation was given by Elia Barahona, co-founder and CEO of ClassOnLive. Barahona presented an e-learning platform and how it is adding value in terms of online training.
Alagie Touray, a member of Finnova’s finance team, focused his presentation on the European Interreg MAC (Madeira, Azores and Canary Islands) program. The program, which has a budget of 170 million euros within the Multiannual Financial Framework 2021-2027, aims at cooperation between overseas regions with third countries, which in this case are Cape Verde, Ivory Coast, Gambia, Ghana, Mauritania, Senegal and Sao Tome and Principe.
After her speech, Awamary Khan, founder and CEO of The Woman Boss, took the floor, focusing her presentation on the challenges, similarities and opportunities faced by women in entrepreneurship. Khan stressed that her organization is an “actor of change, being a space for girls and women who want to evolve in the fields, among others, of entrepreneurship and innovation”.
Alexandra Pokatina, assistant for communication and European projects at Finnova, focused her participation on the opportunities offered by the European Union to young people in terms of employment, entrepreneurship and mobility, while promoting the exchange of cultures and European identity.
Finally, the closing of this first day was in charge of María José Valero, CEO of Talent Growth Management. Valero presented the Technovation Girls program, a non-profit organisation in charge of preparing young women between the ages of 8 and 18 to become entrepreneurs and technological leaders.
About the 100 Women Plus project:
This project co-financed by the EU Erasmus plus Program and led by Finnova, in collaboration with the Cabildo of Fuerteventura and the association Fundadoras, was born in an attempt to address the need for greater equality and enhance international cooperation on women’s empowerment. 100 Women Plus that has been designed to improve the channels of collaboration and dialogue, propose a series of learning activities, exchange of experiences and transfer of results that contribute to establish new mechanisms for female participation, strengthen the ecosystem of women entrepreneurs in the participating countries and create networks and generate partnerships between institutions in Europe and Africa.
About the Finnova Foundation:
Finnova is the Spanish-Belgian non-profit foundation based in Brussels and Spain, working for the promotion and development of innovation and entrepreneurship in the EU. Finnova’s experience in leading communication and dissemination activities of European projects is combined with a solid proven track record in business creation and entrepreneurship support programs, such as accelerators, incubators and events, as well as its commitment to training and employability of young people.