Pozza: female entrepreneurship as ability to team up by creating connections and confidence in doing business

Treviso, 16 January 2023. Over the past few years, – commented the President of the Chamber of Commerce of Treviso – Belluno and Assocamerestero Mario Pozza, – I have had the
honour of awarding, on the occasion of the Women’s Entrepreneurship Committee’s prize, creative entrepreneurial ideas capable of proposing new business models, services and products profiled
for new market niches. I identified female collaboration as a plus that our economy needs. It is the ability to team up by creating connections that generate mutual trust and thus confidence in
doing business. The Chamber of Commerce is here to support connections, to foster fruitful collaborations, to face difficulties together, to overcome them, and to focus on the feminine style that
characterises Made in Italy worldwide. Together with the Giunta of the Chamber of Commerce , we have earmarked an allocation of € 50,000.00 for effective programme support and we are looking to
the future with the Degree Dissertation and PhD Award.

Step by step, – highlights the President of the Women’s Entrepreneurship Committee Barbara Barbon, – women entrepreneurs are increasingly becoming the bearers of new leadership
styles. More and more inclusive, sustainable, welcoming and harmonious, which put the “person” with all her peculiarities at the centre. It is an example of how one can go through an ongoing
change without losing one’s goals.

In the first half of 2022, the subset of women’s businesses, made up of 16,161 establishments in the province of Treviso and 2,921 in the province of Belluno, accounted for more than a fifth of
both Treviso and Belluno businesses. In Treviso, female enterprises are growing, both compared to the first half of 2021 (+157) and to the previous three years (+257), while in Belluno they are
slightly decreasing (-6 and -14 respectively). Of the 127 innovative female start-ups in Veneto, which Unioncamere has recorded as at Q3 2022, 18% are based in the provinces of Treviso and
Belluno: 21 are those in Treviso (+3 units compared to 2019) and 2 in Belluno, concentrated almost exclusively in manufacturing and business services.

The Committee for the Promotion of Women’s Entrepreneurship, which has been operating in the Chamber of Commerce since 2000 and was renewed last year for the five-year period 2022-2026, is
currently made up of 14 members, 13 of whom represent trade associations, representing the most representative economic sectors at provincial level, plus one member – expressly provided for in
the Memorandum of Understanding – representing the Chamber Council.

On 13 July, the Committee elected its President, Barbara Barbon, and two Vice Presidents: Lorenza Orzes and Moira Fontana. The other members are:

Ilaria Pempinella, who together with the President and the two Vice Presidents are representing the artisan sector;

Valentina Cremona and Edda Francesconi Sartori, representing the trade-services sector;

Martina Dal Grande, Silvia Grillo and Chiara Bortolas, representing the agricultural sector;

Nadia Zampol and Katia Marchesin, representing the industry;

Stefania Padoan, representing the insurance-banking sector;

Sara Pasqualin, representing the trade unions;

Ivana Del Pizzol, representing the Council of the Chamber of Commerce.

The Committee operates to promote and enhance the role of women in the business world in accordance with the provisions of the Memorandum of Understanding between the Ministry of Economic
Development and the Italian Union of Chambers of Commerce. In particular, it has the task of:

b. to participate in the activities of the Chambers by combining the development of local entrepreneurship from a gender perspective;

c. to promote surveys on the local entrepreneurial reality, in order to identify opportunities to access and promote women in the world of work and entrepreneurship in particular;

d. to promote initiatives for the development of female entrepreneurship, also through specific information activities, entrepreneurial and professional training and targeted managerial
assistance services, also using information and communication technologies;

e. to activate initiatives to facilitate access to credit;

f. to disseminate in the territory the initiatives and research and study activities on local development promoted by the Chambers of Commerce;

g. to propose initiatives, also in collaboration with third parties that carry out activities to promote and support female entrepreneurship;

h. to build relations with the world of education and training, including schools, universities and research institutes to promote innovative projects that favour equal opportunities and, in
particular, enhance and qualify enterprises managed by women;

i. to involve local stakeholders, in order to bring objectives concerning the promotion of equal opportunities and gender policies into the Chamber’s planning.

Last December, the Chamber Council approved the activity plan entitled “New Perspectives, states of change” to be implemented during 2023, the main actions of which concern:

Advanced training courses aimed at both Committee Members and aspiring and existing female entrepreneurs who want to consolidate their knowledge;

Women’s Entrepreneurship Award in recognition of women-owned businesses that stand out in terms of innovation as a cultural value tool for change;

Master Dissertation/PhD award to award master or PhD dissertations by students living in the provinces of Treviso and Belluno and graduates from any university
and with the subject of the world of female entrepreneurship in the transversality of its aspects;

Convegno – Strumenti di certificazione per il cambiamento culturale. Il Family Audit e la Certificazione della Parità di genere. Progetto organizzato in
collaborazione con Unioncamere Nazionale e i Comitati per l’Imprenditoria Femminile delle Camere di Commercio di Trento e Bolzano. Testimonianza della Cooperativa “Il Girotondo delle mamme” di
Oderzo e di aziende dei territori certificate;

Conference – Certification Tools for Cultural Change. The Family Audit and Gender Equality Certification. Project organised in collaboration with Unioncamere
Nazionale and the Committees for Female Entrepreneurship of the Chambers of Commerce of Trento and Bolzano. Testimony of the Cooperative “Il Girotondo delle mamme” of Oderzo and companies from
the certified territories;

Participation of the Committee in the second edition of the Treviso City for Women Festival, an initiative promoted by the Municipality of Treviso, the Equal
Opportunities Commission and Progetto Donne Veneto with the support of Spazio Donna Treviso, scheduled for the first weekend of May 2023;

Cycle of conferences on topics of interest to women as well as initiatives in collaboration with the other Committees of the national network of Chambers of
Commerce and in cooperation with Bodies, Associations, Commissions, etc.

For the implementation of the programme, the Chamber Council has set aside a maximum allocation of €50,000.00.