Female entrepreneurship and educational revolution catching eyes at TIF 2021

For three days (September 12-14), 40 women entrepreneurs from Greece and other Balkan countries, had the chance to attend the TechCamp Thessaloniki: Empowering Women Entrepreneurs program, exchange knowledge, learn how to set up a sustainable business and take advantage of new digital technologies and strategies. On September 15, the TechCamp was followed by the Education Revolution Conference, an activation focusing on the digital transformation of education in our days.

TechCamp 2021 has been one of the highlights of the 85th TIF. The US Ambassador in Greece, Geoffrey Pyatt, in his welcome remark, noted the importance of the great collaboration between the US. Mission to Greece and the Found.ation and Socialinnov: “I want to thank the Socialinnov team for their flexibility and resilience following the cancellation of TechCamp 2020 due to the pandemic. Socialinnov and Found.ation are longstanding Embassy partners, and I appreciate how quickly they were able to shift gears to offer a series of virtual workshops to participants from the 2020 program. I’m also glad to see that so many female entrepreneurs have returned to participate in person this year.” Mr. Pyatt also noted that: “History shows that when women fully participate and succeed, our societies prosper. And as our countries and communities recover from the economic shock of the pandemic, your contributions will be more valuable than ever.”

During the workshop, held in the Digital Greece pavilion, the participants were connected with technology experts to co-create innovative tech solutions to real-world challenges. Within the context of TechCamp Thessaloniki: Empowering Women Entrepreneurs, they discussed and brainstormed on challenges such as building a team and a network, identifying funding opportunities, taking advantage of social media and storytelling and overcoming gender barriers in a male-dominated environment.

In between the training sessions, a number of panels and discussions with special guests was also taking place. Among a series of hot topics, the challenges and opportunities of digital transformation as well as the connection of women with the technological sector were more thoroughly examined.

“The Challenges and Opportunities of Digital Transformation” were thoroughly discussed by a panel comprising Cameron Brooks, General Manager, Europe Public Sector, Amazon Web Service, Nikolaos Lambrogeorgos, Senior Account Manager Public Sector, Greece & Cyprus, Cisco, Myladie Stoumbou, Chair, Women in Business Committee, American-Hellenic Chamber of Commerce and Dr. Robbie K. Melton, Associate Vice President for the National SMART Technology Innovation Center at Tennessee State University.

Maria Syrengela, Deputy Minister for Demography, Family and Gender Equality participated in the panel discussion about “Women Who Rise in Tech” and among others, stated: “Before talking about encouraging women entrepreneurship, we must talk about women empowerment. The government aims to create a safe environment where women can feel strong and can be ready to make the first step or the next step in their professional life. We believe that without the equal participation of women there cannot be real development and there cannot be real social justice and real democracy.” Along with Mrs. Syrengela, participants in the same panel discussion were Effie Lazaridou, CEO, New Agriculture, New Generation Greece and Jimmy Athanasopoulos, Greece Representative, Social Responsibility – Libra Group & Chairman – Envolve Entrepreneurship. Both panels were ivestreamed on Found.ation’s YouTube channel (1st Panel and 2nd Panel).

By the end of the workshop the female entrepreneurs presented complete business plans that they managed to build with the support of their mentors. The 40 women were trained on a variety of topics such as business strategy, digital marketing, sales and partnerships, finance, legal, working with web developers, design of digital products and planning of business and personal development.

This year, the partnership of the U.S. Mission to Greece with Found.ation and Socialinnov yielded one more activation. The Education Revolution Conference was organized on September 15, at the Digital Greece pavilion, and also included a series of workshops, discussion panels and speeches. The goal of the Conference was to inform teachers and students about the technological evolution and the digital transformation of schools, but also inspire kids (especially girls) to follow a STEAM (science, technology, engineering or math) career. During the Conference topics such the role of technology and innovation, the impact of community actions, the acceptance of diversity, the IoT introduction to schools and more were also discussed.

Both programs were conducted as a successful follow-up to the long term collaboration of the U.S. Mission in Greece and the Found.ation and Socialinnov, which started in 2018 when The USA was the honored country of the Thessaloniki International Affair.