By Laura Gaillard
On Thursday, November 8, the First Edition of the PWA EClub concluded with the presentation of a series of interesting and original projects elaborated by our members, including budding and confirmed women entrepreneurs. Vania, customized HR consulting; Elodie, French and Italian legal support, Emanuela, innovative provider of temporary design objects and vintage furniture (“Mobilitare”); Pamela for Executive support in outstanding Smart English speaking (actually her presentation left us almost voiceless); Kristina and a unique proposition of Customer Experience Audit. Tal (Strass it) and Gaia (Dinner Planner), could not join but their projects deserve to be mentioned.
Our evening together was indeed a rich and emotional experience. What appeared a far away destination was reached through steps of shared problems and feedback on sometimes imprecise personal and professional objectives.
We first met at the end of March for an aperitivo and “speed dating” to briefly introduce our projects to the other members. The Club mission is sharing and improving through the exchange of information, feedback and expertise. We brainstorm, refine our ideas, hear about those of our peers and work towards taking the next steps.
The topic of our first intensive workshop on Saturday, April 14, (in a Bocconi University meeting room) was Transforming Ideas into Business Opportunities. After Laura Gaillard introduced the Basics on “Organizing Entrepreneurship”, groups were formed to work on the importance of values of the Business Opportunity and Personal goals.
On Saturday, May 19 we were guests of Marco Massarotto founder of Hagakure, the first Italian company to propose Internet PR. We ended our “Japanese” start-up trek with an authentic Japanese lunch.
In between our workshops, Zoe animated two aperitivos, one on Personal goals and another on Business Vision.
On Monday, June 25, it was FORMAPER (a body of the Milan Chamber of Commerce to promote entrepreneurship) who provided a meeting room to hold our workshop on Resources attraction and combination (Looking for support. How and where to get funding in Italy). Our guest guest: Tommaso Marzotto Caotorta – Segretario Generale of IBAN Italian Business Angel network association – presented his association and offered useful insights on the criteria they use for selecting Business Plans. We had also a basic presentation on Financing opportunities from EC, by junior members of the European Commission Representation in Milan.
In July we worked on Business plan writing commenting the Presentation of selected projects which also received feedback from our guests Dottori Commercialista Silvia Re, and Deborah Settola
After the summer break we meet again in Bocconi University on September 29 for an after summer re-cap on basic tools and business plan writing. We did group exercises on “How to present your business idea as a business opportunity” and pitch it to different audiences. It was also the occasion of looking back on our passed activities and plan for the future: the next edition of our EClub.
Before the last meeting and presentations of selected projects (November 18), we met for an aperitivo on Wednesday, October 24, in NH Hotel
We are now planning a proper EClub dinner in January 2013; and for the future to launch a new edition of the EClub in 2013 putting the lessons learned during the first edition into use. See you there!
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