On October 11, Amcham in cooperation with the Estonian Fashion Brands Association (EFBA) held a joint event with over 90 participants who represented both, female and male business professionals! This time we celebrated the week of entrepreneurship in Tallinn and got to hear an amazing speech by Minister of Entrepreneurship Liisa Oviir, focused on the success stories of three amazing female entrepreneurs, got to study the main takeaways from Amway’s Global Entrepreneurship Report AGER, and for last but not least, witnessed the launch of a brand new organization – EFBA!
Minister Oviir opened the event with an inspiring speech on entrepreneurship and its role and importance in our lives. She said that to be able to develop, we have to keep our minds open to changes and new ideas. Our women are educated,confident and strong enough to take the leadership, so we need those women to be more visible and set an example to young girls and other women. It`s not only because our nation is small, but also because women think differently and this is exactly what we need to get further.
Professor of the University of Tartu, Tônis Mets, presented Amway’s annual Global Entrepreneurship Report AGERS’s results and made conclusions.
“Estonia is one of the top entrepreneurship friendly countries according to the AGER 2015 report, but only 38% of women and 54% of men feel they could make the action and be the entrepreneur by themselves. Why Estonians are afraid? One of the biggest fears of Estonians seems to be the fear of failing. Almost two-thirds of women are afraid of that! I think that our society should support moreo entrepreneurs and increase entrepreneurshal education: putting potential entrepreneurs into position to gain experience before venturing out” – said Tônis Mets
AGER’s presentation was followed by an exciting and rather diverse panel discussion moderated by Kathleen Naglee, the director of International School of Estonia. The three panelists were the amazing women with rather different backgrounds and business spheres they are involved in. The first one was Oksana Tandit, famous Estonian fashion desiner and one of the creators of the EFBA. The second panelist was Kaidi Ruusalepp, the founder and CEO of Funderbeam and the third one was Eva-Maria Ôunapuu, the creator and CEO of Joik.
“There is no “tomorrow” thing, like “I will do it tomorrow!”. There is today and I do it today! After all – nothing to lose by becoming an entrepreneur!” – said Kaidi Ruusalepp
“Find out what are your strenghts and build on them. Be prepared to always learn something new-maybe you have hidden talents you were even not aware of.At the same time focus, nobody can be an expert of everything!” – Eva-Maria stated.
Oksana Tandit also commented: “Happiness is the key to everything! I am a happy woman and I am happy to do what I do! So if you do something that you really love and enjoy, you will definitely be a star!”
The evening ended with the EFBA creators’, Oksana Tandit and Evelin Ojamets, presentation about the brand itself and their latest successful business trip to Washington DC. Also they introduced some of the designers and their works which were displayed at the event.
We would like to thank everyone who was able to join us for this evening! Special thank you goes to Radisson Blu Hotel Olümpia for the great service and delicious dinner! Also we would like to thank Viinitie for the amazing welcome drink and wines! We also appreciate EFBA’s contribution and support in organizing this event! And of course our sincerest gratitude goes to our Premium Partner – Amway, whose support and sponsorship made this event possible to happen!
Photos by Sergei Krasii, Fotki Inc. for AmCham Estonia (c)
