The Project’s First Event: We Start in the Heart of Old Riga
On January 16th, the participants of our project from Latvia and Estonia gathered for the first time in Riga at an Awareness raaising conference. The goal of the event was clear: to explain the difference between entrepreneurship and hired work, highlight the advantages and challenges faced by newcomers to the business world, and, most importantly, inspire and motivate young women to start their own businesses.
The conference began with an introduction to the Central Baltic Programme and the project. The speaker presented the training course, outlining its structure, content, and timeline, and then invited the young women to share their thoughts on starting a business and the skills required to become successful entrepreneurs.
Is a garage the only thing you need to come up with a brilliant business idea? The project expert introduced the main methods for generating business ideas and gave the participants the opportunity to apply these techniques in teams as they worked on assignments. The task of reverse brainstorming, which flips traditional brainstorming on its head, sparked particular enthusiasm and discussion among the teams.
A special guest speaker at the conference was Marina Potjomkina, a well-known creative entrepreneur in Latvia and studio “Marissa Fleur”owner. She shared the inspiring story of how her business idea was born, how it evolved, and her journey from a successful office worker to an entrepreneur. With vivid achievements, challenges, shifts in the business landscape, new ideas, doubts, failures, and fresh comebacks, Marina openly talked about her entrepreneurial journey — stories that deeply resonated with the hearts of the event participants.
The final part of the conference was dedicated to fostering creativity. The most effective methods, impactful examples, obstacles, and team tasks where participants actively interacted and generated ideas together — all contributed to a powerful finish for our first meeting.
And now, we move forward!
