Forum Malardalen-Poland
Stockholm 20th-23rd April 2001
The project aimed at better cultural understanding of both countries by means of knowledge and sharing experience, drawing attention to women running their own businesses and creating a network of business contacts between Polish and Swedish women.
The Conference was a follow-up of an earlier meeting in Olsztyn.
(19th-22nd January 2001) Ms Sara Frykman with the IFW members.
At the Stockholm Conference 13 Polish women were present, including 7 members of the Forum.
During the plenary discussions we set the following:
- unfortunately we are far behind Sweden in the field of legislation regarding equal rights for women and men in the society,
- an entrepreneur who is successful, is creative and innovative and should be aware of typical mental traps that may limit their creativity,
- there are major benefits but also challenges for small companies resulting from the European integration; the example for the benefits is money which is about to come to Poland, an open flow of people, commodities and services; the example of challenges - adjusting to European standards, including in particular ISO 9000 and ISO 14000,
- funds for supporting development of small and medium enterprises sector are going to be transferred to organisations and institutions (government and non-government) and not directly to entrepreneurs.
Problems discussed during the workshops drew our attention to stress symptoms and the solution to the problem of glass ceilings. To cope with stress effectively a woman has to recognize her strengths, determine her priorities, and know well what she wants (in Sweden there are training sessions facilitating gaining this kind of knowledge). One of the workshops was devoted to the subject of how to combine work and household and not to feel guilty about neglecting some of them.
IFW members had the pleasure of getting acquainted with very vigorous Swedish female entrepreneurs of Polish origin, which fact solved the problem of communication barrier. Some new business contacts were established and cooperation on some joint projects started. In our spare time we admired beautiful Stockholm. We stayed at a great hotel and the food was delicious. The discussions were held in the wonderful Taxinge Castle.
Our cooperation had a follow-up in the form of a meeting in Olsztyn (25th-28th June 2001). Our guests were Swedish women running health care companies (rehabilitation, prevention, health education, hospital management, etc), and also representatives of companies dealing with environment protection and distant education.