9-10 February 2023 | Leeuwarden
Elina Isakova, an academic researcher at the Science-to-Business Marketing Research Centre, went to Leeuwarden (Netherlands) to meet for the first time face-to-face with the consortium of the RestART project in which she is the project manager.
Members of each partner institution contributed to the meeting by addressing different project results. This included the successful completion of the first project outcome "Restarting Businesses in the Creative and Arts Industry through Mentorship" report (find the report here) and the discussion of the progress on the second project result, which is composed of:
- An online and interactive platform for mentors and mentees, and project partners, called Ment-Net
- A scope document specifying the relationship between mentors and restarting women entrepreneurs in the arts and creative industries, the interaction and the main success factors.
Ment-Net will be established so that women entrepreneurs can get access to a strong network of potential contacts and quality mentors. The platform fosters interaction and networking between second-chance female entrepreneurs and mentors. It also represents an incentive for mentors to interact with fellow mentors who have their strengths in other areas, thus providing an opportunity to complement expertise when supporting mentees and the satisfaction of helping female entrepreneurs. This increases engagement and usability.
All partners took part in the brainstorming activities regarding Restart Mentors' Toolkit, which will be composed of a collection of instruments and best practices (toolkit) that will help to strengthen the skills and capacities of mentors and provide them with the right means to impact and support women entrepreneurs through mentoring.
Moreover, the consortium met a deputy mayor of Leeuwarden and there was a fruitful discussion about the importance of investing more in culture, boosting the entrepreneurial environment for women, and focus on inclusivity, and diversity.
RestART project aims to bring together restarting women entrepreneurs and potential mentors in the arts and creative industries to improve the quality of mentoring and generate a positive impact for both women entrepreneurs seeking a second chance, and the arts and creative industries. Thank you to our hosts Eline De Koning, Hendrik Jan Hoekstra, and Valeria Traverso, Friesland College (Netherlands), for a stimulating and rewarding environment, for the whole prepared activities, and to the engaged, insightful and thought-provoking consortium partners: Rita Grácio and Margarida Santos, Lusófona University (Portugal), Harshitha Polathula, ACEEU (Germany), Mariarosalba Angrisani, University of Naples Federico II (Italy).
