Posted on December 15, 2022
The Creative Mediterranean team were in Casablanca, Morocco on the 6th and 7th December for the kickoff of the selected business proposals with La Startup Station. The business proposals were selected under the CREACT4MED project following the pitch session which took place on the 11th of November 2022 in hybrid format. Entrepreneurs were required to present their businesses to a group of experts and out of 12 proposals, 4 were selected.
Now, these projects are ready to be launched with the help of the Moroccan Business Support Organisation, LaStartUp Station. In this kickoff event over the course of two days, beneficiaries learned about the CREACT4MED activities, brainstormed synergy opportunities, and benefited from an inspirational talk from Madam Leila Doukali, President of the Association of Women Entrepreneurs of Morocco AFEM.
The entrepreneurs are: CRÉ ARTISANAT, Felicity Chocolat, Help Mariage Maroc, and H Kids. Read more about them at the CREACT entrepreneur page.
On the first day, Maria Ruiz de Cossio, (Project Officer at Euro-Mediterranean Economists Association – EMEA), Christine de Visser (Assistant Project Officer at EMEA), Douja Gharbi (President of Redstart Tunisia), and Giulia Dimonopoli (Project and Events Officer at IEMed) explained the CREACT4MED roadmap outlining the project activities.
Also, during the visit, we heard from Madame Leïla Doukali, President of the AFEM. She discussed women in business and how the CREACT entrepreneurs contribute towards the construction of a strong CCI community. She was able to give advice to the starting businesswomen and talk about female entrepreneurship in the country. She also expressed how listening to the CREACT entrepreneur stories inspires her and adds meaning to her work as president of AFEM Morocco.
To end the first day of the visit, Douja Gharbi of Redstart Tunisie moderated a brainstorming session for the entrepreneurs to build synergies and opportunities for collaboration.
The second day started with a presentation by Maria Ruiz de Cossio from EMEA about the administrative specificities of the grant, the deadlines, and the reporting procedures. Then, each entrepreneur sat down for a one-to-one session to revise their business proposal and resource allocation of the subgrant with the CREACT4MED team. In parallel, entrepreneurs were holding interviews with a professional camera operator to tell their stories and the roles of CREACT4MED in support of their project.
The event ended with a visit to Institut Français de Casablanca, which works for cultural dissemination throughout Morocco and supports the production of innovative projects in the artistic, digital, or academic fields. Entrepreneurs discovered services they could use for their own projects and a community of entrepreneurs and artists promoted by the French institute
The next target country the CREACT4MED team visits will be Jordan.
CREACT4MED is a project funded by the EU through the EuropeAid Programme, and seeks to strengthen CCI ecosystems in the MENA region and unleash the full potential of CCI to create empowered and flourishing societies. It aims to support entrepreneurs, start-ups and SMEs, create jobs, and foster sustainable economic growth in the Southern Mediterranean, with a particular focus on young people and women.
It is led by Euro-Mediterranean Economists Association (EMEA) (Coordinator), with the partners Institute of Entrepreneurship Development (iED), European Institute of the Mediterranean (IEMed), Union of Mediterranean Confederations of Enterprises (BUSINESSMED), Redstart Tunisia, Confédération méditerranéenne pour le développement (MED Confederation), Beyond Group, Libera Università Maria SS. Assunta (LUMSA Università), Association of Organisations of Mediterranean Businesswomen (AFAEMME), Positive Agenda Advisory, and Womenpreneur.
