Monday night was the Final Gala held by Nyföretagarcentrum in Gamla Stan here in Stockholm. Nyföretagarcentrum is a non-profit organisation with offices around the country, sponsored by government and businesses. Their goal is to promote start-ups and support small businesses in general - which it does with huge success. Of those who start a business with their support less than one percent have gone bankrupt after three years and 80% are still active and on average have 2 employees. That is pretty impressive results!

During 2008-2009 SNC has made a particular effort to encourage women not only to start businesses but to make use of the resources that are available - largely thanks to the money that has been eartagged by Maud Oloffsson. Våga Språnget, Starter Programmes, networking groups and inspiration evenings have been the focus of their Investment In Women campaign.

Monday night we were invited to attend a celebration of what SNC have achieved so far. We were treated to red carpet attention, champagne, dinner and a night of celebrating successful women.

The red carpet into Nalen.

Karin, Anne, Monica and Theresa

After the initial introductions from the evening's mediator Lydia Capolicchio, and Anna Nedeby Bar-Am, CEO for Stockholms NyföretagarCentrum we listened to a discussion on women in business held by a panel.

Carin Holmquist Professor Handelshögskolan in Stockholm
Mikael Wolf CEO Swedbank
Kicki Theander Founder Middagsfrid
Sten Nordin kuhiphr Stockholm Municipality
 

Some 350 men and (mostly) women listened and contributed with their own reflections - inlcluding the myth that it is difficult to start a business in Sweden.

While I was listening a security man walked up past me to the front of the audience - odd I thought. A few minutes later Maud Olofson Minister for Enterprise and Energy, Deputy Prime Minister, Ministry of Enterprise, Energy and Communications stepped up onto the stage and I realised - ok, yes, I am in the presence of a national politician and I guess they do need their security force.

Maud was presented with a Thank You card by CEO for SNC Anna Nedeby Bar-Am on behalf of SNC as a thanks for ear-marking 1 million crowns to promote women in business. Maud went on to read some of the comments on the card written by the women (me included) who have benefited from this 1 million crowns.

As I listened to her speech about women, entreprenurialism, business, the recession and Sweden I couldn't help but be reminded of Pippi - seeing her standing there in her red shoes.

And I didn't come away empty handed either - I got a nice diploma for participating in Våga Språnget.

Monday's event was to celebrate the results:

• 1 666 women have started a over 1000 companies
• SNC have conducted 4 925 advisory sessions
• 388 women have participated in the Starter programme
• 60 women have participated in Våga Språnget
• Almost 300 women have participated in networking events.

Do you have an idea brewing away in your mind? Are you a small business in a period of change or in need of support, advice, expertise? I can't recommend SNC enough - they are a fantastic resource! Not only are their staff skilled and knowledgeable but they have endless contacts and have a huge range of experts available to assist those in need - all that and it is free too!

Did you read my post about the 24-Hour-Camp or the Geek Girl Meet-Up and think, WOW, that's sounds like a real buzz - i want to go to one of those?

Well your chance just might be here!
The 24-Hour-Camp has inspired a spin-off 24-Hour-Sörmland, this time to be held in Nyköping, Katrinehom and Eskilstuna the weekend of May 29-30.

The basic idea is the same - entrepreneurs from the region meet and develop web-based services within 24 hours. The goal is to encourage more people to start web-based businesses, but also, perhaps more importantly to give innovators and enthusiasts an opportunity to both meet and exchange and develop ideas. And take it from those who know! Lilla Gumman Karin says it is the most fun and most inspiring experience she has had and that you do not need to know how to program or use the term css in every sentence. A normal blog built on a free platform can also be the basis of a great business idea!

Next Monday will see the start of a number of seminars around the country offering solid advice and exciting examples of how you can be successful in business even in difficult times. Take the chance to mingle with old and new business acquaintances.
What sort of business thrives in difficult times?
Strategies from the small business organisation Företagarna reveals what works and how to turn your business around as a result of the crisis.

How do your customers think when times are tough?
Trend Analyst Ida Hult reveals what people really do when we are in an economic downturn, what we buy, what we pay for.

How do you sell yourself and how do you get paid well paid?
Sales Expert Ulla- Lisa Thordén gives simple advice which has a big impact on your profitability.

Program and prices
For the program, contents and prices - click on the following link to the town that interests you:

April 27th Uppsala

May 4th Karlstad

May 6th Kalmar

May 8th Växjö

May 13th Linköping

 Members of Driftig.nu have the opportunity to attend this seminar which is sure to be both inspirational and a vitamin kick for business - at a discounted price (one that makes it more than worthwhile to join Driftig.nu).

Driftig.nu is a great Swedish resource for women in the early stages of starting a business. Membership is free and includes a regular newsletter, access to experts who write a wide range of articles, great information about what is happening in the world of small business, and a forum providing an excellent opportunity to ask questions, share advice and experience and an opportunity to both market yourself and network.

I have written before about Driftig.nu, Beautiful Business and Sofia Bergenstjerna and Frida Haavisto and have full respect for anything they are involved in.

So if you are worried about where your business is heading as times toughen up, in need of encouragement and inspiration or just starting out - sign yourself up for a seminar and get ready to network with like-minded women!

Heading to an all-day conference on Saturday, which was brought to my attention by fellow blogger & Twitterer Kiwi Raiha.

I feel a bit like a fake as I have never considered myself a Geek Girl and programming friends immediately spring to mind before any vision of myself does.....

Saying that I am very interested in social media and the development of the internet, and almost all the topics on the agenda are extremely interesting.

The Web First on Internetworld
The change to thinking web before paper & how newspapers communicate through social media.
Miriam Olsson, Internetworld

Flash och 3D
Emma Nwaugo, talks about audio visualisation and Papervision as well as about her latest flash project, a quick game application in a whole lot of things I don't understand.....

From Idea TO Site With Wordpress And A Little Determination
Andie Nordgren shows how Wordpress can transform your idea to a site. With the right plugins and the right thinking Wordpress is a great system for much more than blogging. Build your own site on site, if you want, or just listen and learn.

Opportunity Capital
Venture capital industry rom the inside and what you need to know to get ahead.
Katja Lepola, Grädde Invest

From Idea To Mobile Service
Build your own service with tools from Mobilstart. Start immediately with a ready-made service or investigate your own solutions using Mobilstarts API.
Katrin Calderon, Telenor Mobilstart

10 Rules for Development of Services on the Internet
Paula Marttila

How I did a life report from the Pirate Bay-trials
Anna Oscarsson

Sociala media in large organisations - the culture is more important that the tool
Helena Lindh, IBM

The Apes' invasion of office life - technical and social toys
Paulina Söderlund Modlitba talks about her projects from MIT Media Lab. Monkey Business is about soft robots that can give a sense of what your colleagues are doing. GlobeToddler is a way form parents to communicate with their children through a soft toy that also lives in a virtual world.

Ada Lovelace and other stars from the IT heaven
Karin Adelsköld

Me and my beloved mobile!
I love mobile phones. Since 1994 I have had about 40 of them and tested over 100. I always have about 8 mobile phones with me which I change depending on what I am going to do. Get a peek into mobile passion taken to new heights!
Suzanne Fors

API and webhooks - what you need to know to understand the next level of the web
Andie Nordgren

The Future is Soon Here - media trends in the coming years.
Paulina Söderlund Modlitba talks about her work at Bonnier and the media trends they have identified for the coming years, as well as the challenges facing the media industry.

How do you create mobile content for girls?
I work as a project leader at Telia where girls are an important target group and one that we have started focusing on. We have created a mobile site for girls: http://m.tete.nu which is just the beginning of something I think is very interesting. I will speak a little abou how Tête evolved and what our intentions are for the future. I will talk and show material as well as ask questions and create a discussion if anyone wants to partake. If there are any applications, sites that you have created yourself that should be on Tête. If you want to see a Tête sms send one to 71160
Suzanne Fors

New Media - old organisations. A discussion about motivation and the spread of knowledge around social media.
A discussion about motivation and the spread of knowledge of social media.In my work I try to encourage colleagues and motivate why it is so important to keep an eye on microblogs and blogs as a part of the usual business intelligence, but often find opposition. What do you do to not lose heart and still have constructive and good arguments as to why it is important?
Sandra Jakob

Library 2.0 - lessons from an educational program about webservices for librarians.
Ingela Wahlgren talks about how the library world is taking on new web services through the use of course model 23 Things.

OPK 1998 – pre Geek Girls
Gitta Wilén and Lotta Holmström

Women + Computer games = True
Lina Eklund from Stockholm's University talks about her research of girls in the World of Warcraft and how girls react to games and the game world. Are you a gamer? Discuss the world of games and meet the rest of the game nerds at the Geek Girl Meetup in a discussion after the seminar.

Curious? If you can read Swedish you can

follow the Meet-Up on the web

.