MENTEE Mentoring, Networking and Training for European Entrepreneurs Proj.no: 2014-1-PL01-KA202-003383 Multiplier Event Report This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This publication (communication) reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.
Table of Contents Introduction... 3 Agenda and logistics... 4 Pictures of the event... 5 Profiles of participants... 6 Promotion of the event... 6 Feedback on the event... 6 Conclusions... 7
Introduction Europe needs more enterprises. For over a decade the EC has been championing measures to create a more business-friendly environment to promote economic growth through entrepreneurship. The MENTEE project aims to support aspiring and new entrepreneurs across Europe, providing them with practical entrepreneurial experiences and know-how, together with entrepreneurial models to follow, inspiration and informal competences that could be ensured by the constant connection created with mentors/experienced entrepreneurs. Within the MENTEE there are the following objectives to be attained by the partnership: provision of a constant mentoring scheme to the young entrepreneurs which either are involved or had recently being involved in the Erasmus for Young Entrepreneurs programme (as a primary target group) and for young entrepreneurs of the countries involved (secondary target group). adaptation and further development of a blended learning model (face-to-face and virtual) to meet the needs of the target group of young entrepreneurs, promoting entrepreneurship education. provision of a networking platform to let these target groups interact and foster their business ideas through further e-learning opportunities and business connection. development of a news aggregator and content curation platform for young entrepreneurs experiences around Europe. In order to reach the goals specified above, during the first year of the project the consortium worked on the adaptation of the Mentoring Circles to the main target group of the project: new entrepreneurs who are either involved or have recently been involved in the Erasmus for Young Entrepreneurs programme, as well as other aspiring entrepreneurs. Between October and December of 2015, partners from Portugal, Poland, Italy and Greece held the 1st Pilot Phase of the Mentoring Circle, aimed to test, adapt and validate the methodology, instruments and tools structured by the partnership. Along with the implementation of the partners mentoring sessions there was the functioning of another intellectual output initiated within the project. The consortium launched the online networking platform to support, consolidate and further propagate the idea of mutual entrepreneurial support in business. So as to contribute far more effectively to the dissemination of the already produced project results, and especially to share the experiences gathered during the 1st Cycle of the Mentoring Circle, each of the aforementioned partners organised a national multiplier event, in some cases planned in correlation to the mentoring sessions. The meeting was addressed to everyone interested in entrepreneurship and eager to get to know business-supportive tools/solutions.
The present report is to provide detailed information on the preparation, implementation and conclusions/outcomes of the Multiplier Event organised in Italy. In brief, the Italian event took place in Matera on the 18th of November 2015 and was attended by 16 participants young or aspiring entrepreneurs. The feedback on the meeting was very positive and the reaction to the project and its Intellectual Outputs very encouraging. More details will be presented in the following sections of this report. Agenda and logistics The Italian multiplier event took place on the 18th of November 2015. The event venue was Casa Cava, one of the centres for creativity and business created by the regional program Visioni Urbane, a European funded program (ESF) aiming at recovering spaces in Basilicata region to make them available for creative entrepreneurs. Casa Cava was also the space that hosted the 1 st pilot phase of the project. As for the agenda, Quality Program team proposed the following activities: Erasmus + KA2 MENTEE Multiplier Event Venue: Casa Cava 15:30 Welcome by Mr. Nicola Martulli 15:45 Introduction to the Erasmus + program and MENTEE project by Mr. Paolo Montemurro 16:00 Presentation of MENTEE Intellectual Outputs: Competence frameworks, Mentoring Circle, Social Learning Platform by Mr. Raffaele Vitulli 17:00 Feedback from participants to the pilot of the Mentoring Circle Coffee and networking session
Pictures of the event
Profiles of participants The event was attended by 16 people belonging to a specific target that Quality Program invited and managed to involve: young, new and potential entrepreneurs working in the sector of creative industries and cultural organizations. The focus on this specific group was due to the fact that Matera and Basilicata region are currently experiencing a growth of the sector and that the highest rate of new companies created are in this sector. The choice was therefore meant to provide further support to a group of people that would immediately find useful the project topic and its outputs. Among participants there were more new entrepreneurs than potential one and many of them were already linked with other initiatives managed at national or regional level to promote entrepreneurship. None of them had already considered the possibility to have a mentor during this startup phase. Promotion of the event Promotion of the multiplier event has been linked to the promotion of the pilot of the project, combining recruitment of pilot participants with invitation to the final event. Being the target group specific the promotional campaign has been very focused with direct email to those organizations, entrepreneurs, people that Quality Program team knew already and that could have potentially covered a double role: - main beneficiaries of the project intellectual outputs - multipliers of the project and of its products. Being Quality Program an Intermediary Organization of the Erasmus for Young Entrepreneurs program some of the contacts were selected among the people that are currently part of the initiative or that belongs to its Alumni network. Last but not least the event has been connected with the Global Entrepreneurship Week in Italy. Feedback on the event The event was meant to present the project, first intellectual outputs developed (frameworks of competences) before going more into the presentation of the Mentoring Circle and of the Social Learning Platform. The afternoon was spent by first giving short presentations and then allowing the Circle facilitator (Mr. Raffaele Vitulli) and participants to present their impressions on the methodology and the process trying to describe the value in it and giving the floor to questions coming from the audience.
The discussion has been very active and participants showed interest in being involved in the next phases of the project (2 nd pilot and social learning platform). A very interesting topic emerged was the need to focus efforts and resources on initiatives that could have a real impact on the development of new business and on guiding young and new entrepreneurs in their initial steps and career. Conclusions The event has been very useful to share the work done by MENTEE consortium with the local reality Quality Program is working with. It has created hype around next phases of the initiative and new followers and beneficiaries have been reached. Very useful feedbacks have been received on the need for the implementation of the process and methodology proposed, being mentoring considered by all participants as one of the best possible way to cope with the lack of experience in managing a business, of entrepreneurial skills and of support during the first years of business development. The idea for the next phase is to try and enlarge the target group to a wider and less sectorial group promoting it outside the region and trying to monitor the interest also in other areas of the country.