The EWA program is in the Czech Republic for the second time, and the program is implemented here by a non-profit organization, cats2cats, which supports women. The organization has been working for more than ten years to ensure gender equality and diversity and fight down gender and age stereotypes. The program is supported by EIT Food.
Challenge
More than 50 projects successfully applied to be part EWA 2022 accelerator in the Czech Republic this year. After a lengthy decision-making process, the jury selected ten projects and allowed ten women entrepreneurs to advance their businesses and skills.
Learning, progress and sharing
On 14th July 2022, they officially launched the EWA program in the Czech Republic through the Matchmaking event. In the first part of our meeting, they focused on presenting the schedule of the entire program, 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, dedicated to the presentation of Design Thinking presented by Pavlína Louženská, helped mentees could practically try out a more systematic strategy for introducing their product or service to the market.
The matchmaking format concludes by reminding important contacts and networking for future cooperation.
Now we have all achieved the second part of the program. On 6th 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 Masterclass was held by Petra Kubálková, head of cats2cats, who, in her presentation, presented the reasons why it is necessary to analyze the competition and how to analyze it – 4 types of competition, creation of competition profiles, SWOT analysis, and competition marketing.
The theoretical part followed presentations of individual projects and their competitors. All projects had to prepare a competitors list, and during their presentation, they picked two main competitors and defined their strengths and weaknesses. They presented to the group and received feedback along with recommendations.
So the training points of this Masterclass are clear – presentation skills and analytical skills to produce research. According to coordinators and mentors, the participants kept showing progress and put in much effort to create a successful startup in the agri-food sector.
And that is not the end …
Mentees are up to the change in the agri-food sector.
After Masterclass, as a kick-off, all entrepreneurs go through a series of online webinars focused on the definition of a customer or client, a webinar on the topic „Law for startups & budding entrepreneurs,“ marketing classes, and „How to build a successful business strategy.“ All webinars connect the theoretical and practical parts. The end of this phase is 1st November 2022.
The Grand finale
The last meeting will be the Pre-final Masterclass (2nd part). At this meeting, entrepreneurs will use all the previous and new knowledge they acquired in the last six months. For the first time, they will be able to experience presenting their project on stage in front of a jury. Then all that remains is to learn from the feedback and practice and practice and practice for the final Pitching, which takes place on 24th November 2022 in Prague.
All of you are welcome at the final to see the future of agri-food.
For more information contact us natalie@cats2cats.org
