On the 16th of April, the RE-FEM Erasmus+ project kicked off its first World Café event in Budapest. The project, coordinated by the HÉTFA aims to provide innovative training materials to mentors and trainers working with women entrepreneurs, thereby supporting women entrepreneurship. The professional discussion followed a World Café format, creating space for collaborative dialogue on how to strengthen the resilience and skills of women entrepreneurs.
The event brought together professionals relevant to women entrepreneurship, including directors, executives, key decision-makers, public sector representatives involved in relevant policy areas, as well as women entrepreneurs themselves — with the aim of discussing how to better support women entrepreneurs, assess the effectiveness of current policies, and explore potential new initiatives.
The event began with welcoming speeches by Gábor Balás, executive director of HÉTFA Research Institue, and Zsuzsanna Lukács Lakatosné, executive director of SEED Foundation. Katalin Oborni (HÉTFA), the RE-FEM project’s coordinator introduced the project, outlining its main objectives, key initiatives, and results.
The discussions covered five main topics: the impact of invisible work on women entrepreneurs, the specific challenges of rural women entrepreneurs, the opportunities presented by digital transformation, the role of education in supporting women entrepreneurs, and growth and investment from an entrepreneurial perspective. A number of concrete proposals and needs emerged from the dialogues, including more community support, targeted training programmes, mentoring opportunities, stronger public involvement and the promotion of flexible learning.
We would like to thank all participants for their valuable input, which will support the further work of the RE-FEM project. The lessons learned from the World Café events will be used to produce a Final Policy Brief, which will present the challenges faced by women entrepreneurs in the partner countries and the good practices that support their work. The study will also provide a synthesis of the development proposals made during the World Café events, with policy recommendations to improve the opportunities of women entrepreneurs. For the latest project news, visit the RE-FEM website and social media pages (LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram).