How the event “Women in (startup) entrepreneurship” went in Narva

On March 9th, on International Women’s Day an event in Narva called “Women in (startup) entrepreneurship” was held. One of the goals of the event was to look at the reasons behind the unequal balance of women entrepreneurs (as opposed to men entrepreneurs) and discuss ways to inspire women to be more entrepreneurial.

According to Eurostat, only 33% of all entrepreneurs in the European Union are women. The percentage of women entrepreneurs is the lowest in Denmark, Estonia and Lithuania, and despite all sorts of programs, this ratio remains virtually unchanged.

The speakers of the event were real opinion leaders in the world of business and entrepreneurship. After a greeting from the Head of the Delegation of the European Commission in Estonia Vivian Loonela, the floor was taken by the President of the Narva Entrepreneurial Women’s Club of Estonia (EENA) Lyubov Fomina with an overview of all the trends and changes in women’s entrepreneurship over the past 5 years. Olesya Bondarenko, the head of the medical startup Nanordica, talked about a path from science to entrepreneurship.

The culmination of the event was a panel discussion titled “Why are there few women (startup) entrepreneurs?”, in which shared their thoughts Yana Budkovskaya, co-founder of the Narva startup hub OBJEKT and head of the Prototron fund, Vera Zemskova-Rusmanova, co-founder of the Zen Flower startup, director of Narva-Jõesuu Spa & Sanatorium Karina Kyuppas and President of Narva EENA Club Lyubov Fomina.

According to Olga Kurdovskaya, director of the Narva Startup Incubator Program at Tehnopol, who moderated the discussion, it was not only about why entrepreneurship is important in our lives, but also about why there is such low entrepreneurial activity and little interest in technology professions in the region.

At the event, the women discussed what everyone can do personally to influence the improvement of the situation in the region, and also made new contacts. During the breaks between the main program, the participants were able to get acquainted with the products of such innovative Estonian startups as Woola and Click & Grow, and just enjoy the people and the atmosphere.

The event was supported by Startup Estonia within the walls of OBJEKT multimedia future hub.

Photos: Anton Osipovsky