The EMEN project has organised a series of fourwebinars on the main aspects of business development: financial, human & social capital. The webinars are covering many topics that are relevant to both organizations that provide business support, as well as Migrant Entrepreneurs themselves.

The fourth webinar: a Policy Roundtable on the topic “Future support of the migrant entrepreneurial ecosystem in Europe”

11th of December, 2019 – From 5 to 6 PM

With the final webinar of our network’s series, we want to open the discussion on “Future support of the migrant entrepreneurial ecosystem in Europe” to the policy level!

It will take place as a live streaming of a policy round table with DG GROW, EASME and Generali representatives, broadcasted on a webinar. By doing so, participants to the webinar will be able to interact with them. 

In the course of our last three webinars, we gathered insights from the sector, along the three essential dimensions of business support: financial-, human- and social-capital. On December 11^th we will finally conclude our webinar series by inviting representatives of the EC’s DG Grow (for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs), EASME (Executive Agency for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises), Generali Deutschland and a migrant entrepreneur, Beslan Kabartai .

Together with the sector (you!), we want to take the unique opportunity to do both: to discuss the findings of the preceding webinars and to highlight learnings from the past EU-support schemes. Furthermore, we will take a look at the European Commission’s future support for Migrant Entrepreneurship. We’ll contrast the discussion by showcasing the potential of CSR-driven projects by reference to Generali’s “The Human Safety Net Programme” (THSN).

REGISTER HERE!

Speakers

Christoph Zeckra (Generali)

Artur Benedyktowicz (EASME)

Jutta Dittrich (DG Grow)

Romina Vateva (DG Grow)

Beslan Kabartai (Freudy UG)

Agenda

1) Words of welcome & key messages of EMEN’s Webinar Series, Dahy Ahmed (Social Impact)
2) EASME’s commitment to Migrant Entrepreneurship: The agency’s Intervention logic and EASME’s future engagement, Artur Benedyktowicz (EASME)
3) The potential of CSR-driven corporate engagement for ME-support, Christoph Zeckra (Generali Deutschland)
4) Discussion: “Future support of the ME-ecosystem in Europe”, Jutta Dittrich and Romina Vateva (DG Grow), Beslan Kabartai (Freudy UG), Christoph Zeckra (Generali Deutschland) and Artur Benedyktowicz (EASME); moderated by Dahy Ahmed (Social Impact).

Previous webinars

You have missed the previous webinars? Watch them on Youtube!

Webinar 1: “Access to Finance: Let migrants do it themselves”

Webinar 2: “Capacity building for better Migrant Entrepreneurship Support: The learnings of Social Impact’s most comprehensive migrant Startup program Start-Hope@Home”

Webinar 3: Networks for better Migrant Entrepreneurial Support: Do we need a European Ecosystem?

Contact and more info

Moritz Blanke, Social Impact

blanke@socialimpact.eu

The EMEN project will organise a series of three webinars on the three main aspects of business development: financial, human & social capital. The webinars will cover many topics that are relevant to both organizations that provide business support, as well as Migrant Entrepreneurs themselves.

Networks for better Migrant Entrepreneurial Support: Do we need a European Ecosystem?

20th of November – From 5 to 6 PM

Organisations and experts in the field of migrant entrepreneurship are very much dependent on strong local networks of public organisations, coaches & mentors and local communities. In addition, understanding the national legal and institutional framework as well as having access to local public funding are crucial. While other Business Support communities (i.e. Social Business) continue to internationalise, the migrant entrepreneurial ecosystem stays rather fragmented with merely little transnational exchange on the European stage.

With the third Webinar of our EMEN-Series, we will take a critical look at the importance of transnational cooperation in our migrant entrepreneurial sector. We will shed light on the pros and cons of the past support of the EC in this field, and will discuss good practices and identify possible future fields of intervention.

REGISTER HERE!

Agenda
1. Intro, Mohamed Dahy Ahmed (Social Impact)
2. A brief history of European Networks for ME-Support and the leanings from the Equal-Phase, Norbert Kunz (Social Impact)
3. What is the benefit of transnational cooperation? The importance of the Barcelona Example, Guillem Aris (Autoocupació)
4. Discussion: what kind of networks do we need in Europe? What are leaning of the past?

Speakers’ bio

Guillem Aris 

Guillem Aris is CEO at Autoocupació, a non profit institution leading the provision of financial and non-financial services to support entrepreneurship to create and grow their businesses for the last 33 years in Catalonia. Autoocupació is a member os Youth Business International, the European Microfinance Network and the Network for Migrant Entrepreneurs to Scale Up and Grow (M-UP). 

Previous webinars

You have missed the previous webinars? Watch them on Youtube!

Webinar 1: “Access to Finance: Let migrants do it themselves”

Webinar 2: “Capacity building for better Migrant Entrepreneurship Support: The learnings of Social Impact’s most comprehensive migrant Startup program Start-Hope@Home”

The EMEN project will organise a series of three webinars on the three main aspects of business development: financial, human & social capital. The webinars will cover many topics that are relevant to both organizations that provide business support, as well as Migrant Entrepreneurs themselves.

The second EMEN webinar: “Capacity building for better Migrant Entrepreneurship Support: The learnings of Social Impact’s most comprehensive migrant Startup program Start-Hope@Home”

In our second EMEN Webinar we want to take a critical look at Social Impact‘s largest entrepreneurship support program “Start-Hope@Home”. Starting in 2018 and embedded in the broader European political discourse around equipping migrants and refugees with entrepreneurial education in the context of returning to their countries of origin, the implementation of the program represents a great learning field for migrant-oriented business support organisations across Europe.
During our one-hour webinar we will first provide you with a framework that allows a theoretical lens on “capacity building” for migrant entrepreneurship support organisations. Adding-on we introduce the program’s approach and will critically analyse organisational learnings of setting-up a transnational migrant entrepreneurship program at large scale. Furthermore, we will look at the contents and didactical approaches applied in the training of the beneficiaries. During the discussion there will be sufficient room to exchange with webinar participants.

REGISTER HERE!

Agenda

1) Words of Welcome, Mohamed Dahy Ahmed

2) Introduction into “Start-Hope@Home”, Mohamed Dahy Ahmed

3) “Organisational learnings” of setting-up Start-Hope@Home and Conceptualising “Capacity Building for Migrant Business Support Organisations”, Thorsten Jahnke

4) A critical perspective on coaching in the framework Start-Hope@Home, Maha Alusi

5) Discussion

Join us!

The speakers

• Mohamend Dahy Ahmed: As a Global Manager Dahy is responsible for setting up the linkages with the local entrepreneurial ecosystem in the program’s various partner countries. Furthermore – as an egyptian decent and entrepreneur himself – he is the perfect moderator for our EMEN-Webinar series.
• Thorsten Jahnke: Thorsten is Co-founder of Social Impact and Master-Coach in the framework of the Start-Hope@Home. He is certainly one of the pioneers of Social Entrepreneurship in Germany and like this supported hundreds of Inclusive Business in their founding process.
• Maha Alusi: Is one of the external coaches that work with our Berlin-based beneficiaries of the Start-Hope@Home on a daily base. With her long-standing experience she does not only make an impact by building capacities of the cochees but she is helping to iterate the SHH-Coaching process at large.

Contact and more info

Moritz Blanke, Social Impact

blanke@socialimpact.eu

Patricia Martínez Sáez, AEIDL (10/10/2019)

According to Claire Charbit, Head of Unit, Territorial Dialogues and Migration Centre for Entrepreneurship, SMEs, Regions and Cities at the OECD, the recent findings of the OECD publication ‘Working together for the local integration of migrants and refugees’ indicate that rural areas offer different advantages for the integration of people with migratory backgrounds from those of a city. Furthermore, for some rural areas, newcomers could be an answer to their increasingly ageing population that threatens the closure of existing public services. On the other hand, rural areas struggle more to match migrants and refugees skills with potential job opportunities due to the decreasing attractiveness of the job market in those smaller towns.

Professor of Politics Simone Baglioni at Glasgow Caledonian University – Glasgow School for Business and Society presented some of the key findings of the H2020 SIRIUS project, and emphasised that migrants face great challenges in integrating into their host countries’ labour markets in general. They suffer from higher unemployment rates, are more likely to be overqualified for the positions that do hold, and earn lower incomes than their native-born peers. The main barriers that the SIRIUS project identified can be divided into three main areas: policy and legal obstacles; social barriers such as xenophobia or lack of social networks; and individual difficulties such as lack of language and other skills, or access to basic information.

For this reason, pre-established ethnic/migrant communities tend to attract additional members with the offer of social networks and basic information about the services and regulations. And this also leads to other correlations; the more people live in a diverse area, the less likely the native population will be reluctant to host newcomers. Likewise, the higher the regional or local unemployment is, the more likely you will find opposition to host and integrate newcomers. For those particular findings, large urban areas would be more advantageous than rural ones.

In any case, several large and small to medium-size territories in Europe have implemented initiatives that aim to contribute to the sustainable integration of migrants and refugees. In many cases, these initiatives owe much to the prominent role played by mayors, according to Tomáš Boček, vice-governor of the Council of Europe Development Bank. Mayors can act as opinion leaders and become a concrete role model in the promotion of integration for their communities.

One example highlighted by the OCDE as a win-win case is the German city of Altena. With a population of 17,000 inhabitants and a rapidly ageing population, the mayor, Andreas Hollstein, had a clear idea that to welcome refugees was not only a humanitarian duty but also an opportunity to address local challenges. He decided to convince people to not only welcome the ‘allocated quota’, but to become more committed and host a larger number of newcomers in an active way. To this end, local authorities carried out a campaign that emphasised that migrant integration was a key priority and an opportunity for the city’s economic and societal development Actions included public speeches, interviews, meetings and even phone calls. Coordination meetings were organised between the city and external stakeholders to guarantee the success of the support that people with a migrant background receive from the first moment that they arrive in the city.

Housing was decentralised, given that the city could make available a large number of vacant houses at low prices. This helped revitalise areas of the city where some sectors, such as local shops were losing labour force, while also helping avoid segregation and ensuring that, thanks to a network of volunteers, newcomers and the native population were sharing the same spaces and becoming part of the city identity as well.

Therefore, some of the similar recommendations emanating from those different studies are the need for vertical cooperation among the different decision-making levels (national, regional and local) as well as horizontal cooperation between such decision-making levels and all their stakeholders (civil society organisations, NGOs, migrant associations, universities and the private sector). Such cooperation guarantees that the design of policies and related initiatives are in line with the actual needs of each territory and its population.

Creating common spaces to meet and interact, being patient for the social capital to flourish and linking the new social capital generated thanks to the successful integration of newcomers with the strategy of the development of the area could also bring great benefits to other cities in Europe.

More information: https://europa.eu/regions-and-cities/home_en

An event without long speeches… instead brief, thought provoking talks, a thriving market where innovations are shown, pitches, interactive workshops, debates, and inspiring encounters. With others exploring how best access to finance for migrant entrepreneurs can be ensures. Will that be by focused information, new teaching methods, by crowd advising, or through migrant orations, or by offering tailor made financial services? Will blockchain technology and Fintech offer new opportunities? Do we really need to develop special programmes?

The 20^th June, at the premises of the Hague University of Appleade Sciences, in the Hague  you have the chance to meet others who might inspire you, or with whom you want to cooperate. Or just listen and reflect.

We will try to give some answers to questions such as: Are starting migrant entrepreneurs really that different from native entrepreneurs (or entrepreneurs without a migrant background)? Do we need to treat them as a special target group? Do we have to set up special schemes to finance their new businesses? Businesses that for sure will be helpful to them to participate in society, to break out of exclusion, to add value to society. Or do they also have their own ways of mobilising finance?

Time for reflection. Hence this event. We are creating a space to meet, talk, converse, investigate and discuss:

• how migrant entrepreneurs might finance their new ventures
• how they can make use of existing formal and informal financing mechanisms
• how they can make use of mainstream facilities
• how special mechanisms might be relevant, needed and desirable.
• how start-up programmes can support migrants in finding finance

A place to build up new networks as well!

Existing organisations, projects and programmes are given a platform to show what they are doing. We will do so by creating a market place where ideas are offered and interested idea-hungry persons have a chance to get information about approaches that they might use in their own environment. Leading, thought-provoking professionals and practitioners will be given the floor to share their ideas; brief, catchy pitches and brief talks, to confuse, to open eyes, to give that little push into the direction people already wanted to go.

And an event where you will be challenged to leave your comfort zone, cross the border of what you are used to do. And when you leave, you may feel confused, inspired, worried, intrigued and informed.

Interested to receive more information  and / or pre-register? Contact Karijn Nijhoff k.g.nijhoff@hhs.nl  and Patricia Martinez pma@aeidl.eu

Looking forward to meet you!  Klaas Molenaar, THUAS!

As for the structure, according to the project description and given the desirability that migrant entrepreneurship support schemes should offer a comprehensive range of services, the principal meetings of the communities of practice took place in parallel during a series of common events. This structure allowed to interchange among the CoPs and to address overarching topics related to migrant entrepreneurship.

The first day of the event (23 April) entrepreneurs, experts, practitioners and interested people gathered together to discuss and share best practices in the support of entrepreneurial endeavours of migrants in Germany, Europe and beyond.

In particular, the event started with a friendly walking lunch to break the ice and help participants to socialise. This ice-breaking session was followed by a warm welcoming speech from Norbert Kunz (Social Impact) & Toby Johnson (AEIDL) who presented the project and the activities carried out by the hosting organisation.

This introduction was followed by an inspiring keynote speech by Prof. Alexander Kritikos (DIW / German Institute for Economic Research) who shed light on the de facto and potential contributions of Migrant Entrepreneurs to societal welfare.

This presentation was followed by a Migrant Entrepreneurs session where four migrant entrepreneurs presented their business ideas and experiences and talked about their daily challenges. In particular:

1. Beslan Kabertai (Syria) presented his cheese factory and the difficulties he faced on his path to entrepreneurship: He started a cheese-producing business at home in Damascus with a $60 loan. The war in Syria put a stop to it in 2012. He came to Germany in 2015, where it took 18 months to get permission to start up again. Asked what he would do differently, he replied that he would move to a city where residence permits are delivered more quickly (they are slow in Berlin).
2. Ali Karim (Iraq) explained how he decided to set up a laundry service and the success of its idea, which allowed its business to expand to a chain of laundry shops;
3. Lele Golesorkhi and Sara Sahim presented their NGO called WoW (With or Without), which provides inclusion services and support for Muslim women: WoW targets woman migrants who either do or do not wear the hijab. The employment status of men and women migrants in Germany is very different, but the share who are seeking jobs is very similar – 23% of men and 17% of women. Research shows that women who wear the hijab get a very low level of return calls when they apply for jobs. Wow aims to bring about equality, openness, tolerance and respect. It says: “What matters in the labour market is what is in the head, not what’s on it.” WoW runs seminars for employees and campaigns for employees to manage diversity. The gaps include a lack of data, loopholes in the law, and the fact that diversity management is perceived as an economic issue, and not one of rights.
4. Robert Seko (Nigeria) imports spare car parts to his Country of origin and explained how he came up with this idea after a trip back to Nigeria where demand for European spare car parts is high: Nigeria, with a population of 200 million, is Africa’s largest market. It loves second-hand car parts. He joined the ‘Human Safety Net’ programme in October 2017 and has received training in various skills. He has now nearly completed his business plan. He made a 3-week visit in Nigeria to research the market and to take out a business licence. When the business plan is complete and signed off by his coach Olav, he will approach financiers. He has to submit the plan to the chamber of commerce for approval, because he does not have refugee status.

This session was followed by a Q&A moment with the speakers during which the audience was allowed to ask questions and exchange with the entrepreneurs.

Another relevant moment of the first day was the Expert Café, a session of 6 mini-workshops where the participants had the possibility to get deep insights into a wide range of topics relevant to migrant entrepreneurship. The workshops were led by experts in the topics discussed. In particular, the following exchanges and discussions were organised:

1. Klaas Molenaar (Thuas / NL) on access to finance for Migrant Entrepreneurs, and in particular on identifying alternative ways to mobilise financing (outside the traditional forms such as banks, micro financing institutions or special projects).
2. Ralf Sänger (IQ-Netzwerk / DE) on coaching and mentoring.
3. Adam Kumcu (UNITEE / BE) on Diversity Management in corporates.
4. Christoph Zeckra (Generali / DE) showcasing Generali’s CSR Refugee Entrepreneurship Programme “The Human Safety Net”
5. Olaf Weberring (Social Impact / DE) on the “Start Hope @ Home Project” which qualifies refugees for a later entrepreneurial profession in their home countries.
6. Kameran Shwani and Alexander Anifandakis (City of Munich / DE) on the City’s efforts to support migrant entrepreneurs in the region.

After the Expert Café session took place a wrap-up time, a short reflection about the main take-home messages of the day. The word was given to the participants and invited experts to share their thoughts in a moderated panel.

The wrap-up session was followed by a friendly networking cocktail to conclude the day, get-together and exchange with the diverse participants.

The second day of our conference (24 April) was dedicated to EMEN’s core exchange format, the Communities of Practice (CoPs). Here, experts, practitioners and entrepreneurs shared knowledge and disseminated good practices on two areas that are key to supporting migrant entrepreneurship in the short to medium term: coaching and mentoring (CoP1), and professionalism and diversity management (CoP3).

In particular, the CoP1 meeting focused on Professional coaching and training vs. volunteer mentorship – what are the special needs of migrants and how to ensure quality? It consisted of 12 organisations from across Europe and was designed to identify the challenges of an inclusive migrant support approach and in a second step also to develop solutions. In total 16 experts in the field of ME support, one Migrant Entrepreneur and four SI staff members took part in the workshop.

Under the title “Professional coaching and training vs. volunteer mentorship – what are the special needs of migrants and how to ensure quality?” the first CoP 1 Meeting, on 24 April in Munich, was oriented towards the following guiding questions:

• What are the differences between the alternative approaches: what works well and what doesn’t work?
• What makes a migrant entrepreneur a good coach/mentor?
• What challenges do migrant entrepreneurship support organisation face?

CoP 3 workshop focused on the role that Business Member Associations and Chambers play and the needs of the members, in particular in light of the results of the survey organised by CoP3 leaders.

The workshop was directed by UNITEE and EUROCHAMBRES, and addresses two types of problems:

1. The general low level of professionalism of associations of migrant entrepreneurs.
2. The general low level of inclusion of migrant entrepreneurs in mainstream business associations, such as chambers of commerce.

The discussion during the CoP3 Workshop focused on these two problems. Stimulated by Adem Kumcu (UNITEE) and Dirk Vantyghem (EUROCHAMBRES), the discussion evolved in the elaboration of a SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) related to the role of Business Member Associations, Chamber of Commerce, and local supportive ecosystems. All the participants were involved and participated in the discussion and contributed with comments collected on a board using post-its. All the contributions were discussed and reported in the SWOT analysis.

The CoP sessions were followed by a follow-up focused on

• Continuation: how to keep the CoP active and animated;
• Lessons learnt: summarise the content of the discussion;
• Next steps

Each CoP presented the results in an interactive way with the support of post it and a board where all the contributions were attached. This session concluded the 2-day event.

Its main aim was then presented to the large audience:  to develop, share and promote support schemes not only for individual migrant entrepreneurs but also for social and inclusive enterprises benefitting migrants.

To achieve such ambitious objective, the first steps performed were the official setting up of the three Communities of Practice (CoPs) of the project: (1) Coaching and mentoring (led by Social Impact gGmbH, Berlin); (2) Access to Finance (led by THUAS-FINE, The Hague); (3) Professionalisation of migrant entrepreneurs’ associations and diversity management in chambers of commerce (led by UNITEE, Brussels).

During this first year of project implementation, the efforts of the 3 CoP Leaders have been primarily addressed to identifying potential members, analysing their needs and mapping existing support schemes.

Social Impact, leader of CoP1, started to form the CoP and reflected this information in D2.1 Listing key actors; and drafted D2.2 Mapping of coaching and mentoring services for migrant entrepreneurs (EU level and beyond).

THUAS-FINE, leader of CoP2 elaborated D2.7 Working note on issues in finance for migrants wishing to set up micro-businesses of become self-employed; started to new CoP members – Access to finance for Migrant entrepreneurs and elaborated its Annual Strategic Plan.

UNITEE, leader of CoP 3 submitted D2.16 List of CoP members, D2.17 Survey report on professionalisation needs of migrant entrepreneurs’ associations, publishing an article about it in the EMEN website, D2.18 Survey report on mainstream business associations, and prepared D2.19 Pilot training on the professionalisation of migrant entrepreneurs associations and D2.20 Pilot Training Materials on professional skills, ‘living documents’ which will be further improved once the training sessions start to be implemented in the second year.

The first year saw also the launching of the Dissemination and Networking activities. Coordinated by DIESIS, these two pillars of the project aim at generating awareness amongst target groups and disseminate the project activities and results to a wider circle of interested actors on one side, ant to open the project to other networks and consortia and creates a broader European network that takes into account, bridges and links to different initiatives.

The first year has been characterised by the definition of the strategies for Dissemination and Networking, and the setting up of the tools necessary for their implementation: logo, graphic identity, mailing lists, website, and social media. At the same time the partnership has also started all the activities necessary to their implementation and to connect the project to other initiatives aimed at fostering migrant entrepreneurship.

One important element of EMEN Project is the Website. Coordinated by AEIDL, the EMEN project website has been set up in the first month of activity and has achieved more than 2,500 visits and 800 items downloaded in just 5 months;It contains some of the 18 project outcomes developed during last months, relevant news, external resources and events in the shared migrent-agenda website,  but also a dedicated online space, the CoP Discussion Fora, which counts over 30 members representing 19 different organisations from 10 different EU countries. The website is, at the same time, connected with the rest of dissemination channels developed during the first months of project implementation: the Facebook Page and the Twitter profile. Additionally, Newsletter no. 1 was sent on 10 April 2018 to an audience of more than 1,000 contacts.

A key moment for the whole project but specially for CoP1, was the implementation of EMEN’s first Public Conference “Why Migrant Entrepreneurship Matters?” on 23^rd -24^th April at Social Impact’s offices in Munich. This 1^st EMEN annual conference gathered over 60 participants who heard Professor Alexander Kritikos highlighting the status quo and potential of migrant entrepreneurs; a pitch event at which four migrant entrepreneurs/teams presented their experiences and enterprise ideas; and an Expert Café with six interactive workshops, invited experts and EMEN CoP experts who provided a 360° perspective on discourses relevant to migrant entrepreneurs.

The second day was dedicated to the EMEN’s core format, the Communities of Practice (CoPs).

Here, experts, practitioners and entrepreneurs shared knowledge and disseminated good practices on two areas that are key to supporting migrant entrepreneurship in the short to medium term: coaching and mentoring (CoP1) and professionalism and diversity management (CoP3).

The coming months will be the time for consolidating these achievements, strengthening the relationships and starting to put into practice different methodologies to identify better support schemes for migrant entrepreneurs. More events, inspiring workshops and learning materials will be developed very soon. Stay tune and do not miss any opportunity!

Contact details: emen@emen-project.eu

Hello Europe is an Ashoka Hello-Europe initiative that identifies powerful solution to help migrants to scale in Europe. Ashoka has more than 40 years of experiences in social innovation and social entrepreneurship, which they use to help refugees to build a new life in Europe by supporting them in their new life in our countries.  “These solutions have the potential to transform the continent and change lives in every country. Our task: to get them there.  To achieve this, we launch national accelerators that help identify, support and scale the most innovative and effective citizen sector solutions to the challenges underlying migration, integration and refugee movements”.

The event’s goal was to let persons from different backgrounds meet in order to find new solutions for policy designs in the migration field. EU representatives from the European Commissions (Matthias Oel, director of DG Migration and Home affairs), and from the European Parliament (MEP Carlos Coelho) were actively involved in the event, as well as relevant stakeholders from  the private and the no-profit sector, journalists, and successful social entrepreneurs that carry business which have the goal to help migrants. In particular these entrepreneurs were invited to explain their story and what are the successful solutions and tools that must be promoted by the governments and the EU.

Hello Europe has already published a “Portfolio of solution: citizen sector innovation for migration, integration and refugee movements” which gathers best practices of social entrepreneurs that have social business that help the integration and the empowerment of migrants and refugees, and show what policies they would need now.

A public launch on the 7^th attracted about 50 people – from EU institutions and networks, NGOs, chambers of commerce, municipalities and other EU-funded projects for migrant entrepreneurs. We heard about the policy background from Simone Baldissarri of DG Growth, European Commission, and Artur Benedyktowicz of the EASME agency which manages the COSME programme.

The leaders of EMEN’s three communities of practice then explained what they plan to do. Farid Bidardel and Moritz Blanke of Social Impact in Berlin spoke on mentoring, Klaas Molenaar of the Haagse Hogeschool on new types of finance, and Giovanni Collot of UNITEE on professionalising associations of migrant entrepreneurs.

On the next day the project’s launch seminar took place in the offices of Eurochambres. The 12 partner organisations got to know each other, and we all became more familiar with the administrative procedures we shall have to follow.

 A community of practice is a group of people who share a common concern or a passion for something they do, and learn to do it better as they interact regularly” – Etienne Wenger

The main learning activity of the day was a session led by Peter Ramsden on How to run a community of practice. Peter discussed the many activities that CoP members can engage in as they assemble information, share ideas, and perhaps develop joint projects and products.

We debated what ideal size each CoP should be, how to combine distance and physical meetings, where the CoPs should have a core group and a periphery, how to animate the CoP’s members and what web technologies to use. In short – there is a lot to do!

Toby Johnson

Project leader