1. Networking Coffee and Info Session Prepared by Tina Lee Odinsky-Zec 28 August 2013

2. Table of Contents History of Project Historical Overview IFTF and related events Launch conferences Follow on goals Current Status Update Next Steps 3. Historical Overview In 2010, The Invest for the Future program was initiated by the US Department of State under the leadership of Secretary of State, Hilary Clinton and Global Ambassador- at-large for Global Womens Issues, Melanne Verveer. IFTF was conceptualized to focus on improving the economic situation for women across Southern and Eastern Europe and Eurasia. Through a series of events it brought together women entrepreneurs, educators, policy- makers, and civil society leaders to foster development and overcome barriers to fully realize the promise of gender equality and smart economics, as investing in women profits all of society. 4. (Former) Secretary Clinton video message to IFTF Istanbul in 2011 said, Investing in women is one of the best ways to spur economic growth, accelerate development and to reduce poverty which in turn strengthens national security... When we invest in women we invest in the future. 5. IFTF and related events Invest for the Future 3 Regional Conferences 2011 January 24/26 Istanbul, Turkey 2011 October 26/27 Zagreb, Croatia 2012 November 8/10 Warsaw, Poland Related: 2011 July 18/19 Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan Womens Economic Symposium 6. First U. S. Ambassador-at- Large for Global Womens Issues, Melanne Verveer With President of Kosovo, the Honorable Atifete Jahjaga @IFTF Zagreb, 2011 7. Three Main Launch Conferences Invest for the Future -Women Driving Economic Force January 24-26, 2011 Istanbul, Turkey Local Organizer: Kagider Women Entrepreneurs Association of Turkey Participants: 120 Countries: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Cyprus, Georgia, Greece, Turkey + Invest for the Future October 24-26, 2011 Zagreb, Croatia Local Organizer: Zagreb School of Economics and Management Participants: 180 Countries: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Cyprus, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, Slovenia + Invest for the Future November 8-10, 2012 Warsaw, Poland Local Organizer: Vital Voices Poland Chapter Participants: 100 Countries: Belarus, Moldova, Poland, Ukraine + for social media 8. Current Climate An idea in 2010 needs to evolve and adapt to the changing marketplace There are numerous initiatives to support female entrepreneurship in the region and their seems to be a lack of synergy Other organizations/programs in the space include Vital Voices, International Visitor Leadership Program, American Alumni Associations, I4U Mentoring, International Women Entrepreneurs Forum, Golden Rules of Leadership and others. The 2 follow on conferences need to stick to the original intention of the IFTF program but adapt content to suit the more sophisticated entrepreneurs and enablers who now have much more experience but still have needs The niche IFTF can fill is in a strong online support network, an umbrella which will continue recognize and encourage talent and leadership platforms as well as recognize and celebrate emerging leaders and institutions. 9. Slavica Nikolovska 10. Regional and National Roles IFTF Network Leader: Tina Lee Odinsky-Zec Regional Coordinators: Tina (from Zagreb conference countries) Agnieszka Bilinska (from Warsaw countries) Nino Zambakhidze (from Istanbul countries) Country Coordinators: Each country needs its own motivated leader to collect and disseminate information from and to the regional network platforms as identified (like Nino Zambakhidze for Georgia (dual role); Slavica Nikolovska for Macedonia; Agnieszka Bilinska for Poland (dual role) and more to be selected and added on a rolling basis. 11. Strategy Forward: IFTF#Talent Mine, Yours & Ours Struga, Macedonia 17-19 October 2013 In order to have high impact we need to attract women who can guarantee post-training enthusiasm. We will target a core of female leaders who apply in 3 simple questions... 1.What talent do you have to share? 2.What skills do you want to acquire? 3.Which 10 women will you transfer your new skills and knowledge to? How and where? 12. Hotel Drim Struga, Macedonia 13. Cascading Impact Plan 6-8 women with talent to share from each country who will get trained in new skills and transfer talent to 10 locally influential women. Day 1 Travel Day and Networking Evening Day 2 Train the Trainer (60-80 IFTF network participants) English only Day 3 New Talent Trainees outreach to MMN Local Translation (60-80 local participants 14. The Book Collaboration Original research and content was envisioned in the orginal follow on grant for IFTF An ebook or hardbound book was always planned Working Title has been developed The Dictionary of Success: Key Words Along the Path at Macedonia Mentoring Network meetup Call for chapter authors launched on 24 June With completed book to come out in conjunction with International Womens Day 2014 and launch party at IFTF#Success conference. 15. 42 Chapters to date featuring Authors from over 25 countries and growing. Each chapter focuses on one word other than success and covers the term over 4 to 8 pages, concise, compelling and personal journeys of professional women and entrepreneurs 16. IFTF#Success Defining It On Our Own Terms Zagreb, Croatia 7-9 March 2014 The focus on #Success is will feature selected authors from the book project to share how they are defining success on their own terms. This is a timely topic because successes are achieved throughout the life cylce not just as an end goal. 17. Coming March 7-9, 2014 Zagreb 18. Common Follow-on Goals Support of our community. The Network component of the Invest for the Future network is organized so that visitors may easily search, find and connect with members of our community. It is possible to view the site and sort among countries and industries in our network. We also feature a slide show that spotlights different members with a brief story about their enterprise and strategy. As our network grows so will our directory of women owned businesses, support organizations and the interconnectivity of the representative regions. Find seed money and grow your investments. According to the EU, Women entrepreneurs are far less likely to use loans as a means of financing their ventures than men. Invest for the Future will use these pages to make members in our network and visitors to the site more aware of the range of financial instruments that area available for them. The vitality of the region can only be strengthened if the hidden potential of female entrepreneurs is realized and financing can help scale their businesses for strategic growth. Training and skills exchange for lifelong learning and professional development The IFTF learning resources offer insights from experts who will each prepare a series of learning modules in the form of blog posts and relevant links. The topics to be covered include business planning, legal issues, marketing and communication, industry clusters, trends to watch and much more. We will also be maintaining a clearinghouse of policy reports, research and articles that will keep our members well informed and able to read, watch and listen in a quick click of a link. 19. Online Portal Development We currently operate mirror domains of www.investforthefuture.biz and www.investforthefuture.net Working with UNET to build technical capacity of domains Learn: Learn Modules with more visual elements and less text to include YouTube videos, Online Tasks, Synopsis from Expert, Learning Objectives/Highlights Network: Showcase of Female entrepreneurs and Enablers in Context as well as searchable database by country, sector, key words Earn: Product and service Spotlight to shop via links not directly at this time but capacity to generate revenue long term 20. Network Network 21. Work in Progress Securing logistics for Macedonian conference Macedonia Mentoring Network Managing participant application and program development for Follow on conferences Regional Coordinators actively outreaching to IFTF HCC leads 22. Next Steps Identifying and contacting public and private partners to build sustainable future for IFTF network Continued maintenance of website and social media content and usability Focus on girls and youth content and programming 23. Discussion What are your ideas to join the network? How could we create local synergy to make Croatia a model of collaboration? Where do you think there is a gap in the market for nurturing needs of female entrepreneurs?