REGION–KOPŘIVNICE

One for All, All for One

That Is When Women Support Women

Successful women – businesswoman, president of ČMAPM, ambassador of the Choose women

campaign and author of podcasts – Kateřina Haring. The Moravian-Silesian region and Kopřivnice

are her home, but also a place where she always likes to return and spend time with her family.

Three years ago you became the president of the

Czech-Moravian Association of Women in Commerce

and Industry (hereinafter ČMAPM). This association

is celebrating twenty-five years of existence this year.

Which of the planned visions have you succeeded in

implementing?

I managed to implement all the visions that I identified.

Whether it was increasing the number of members--the

number of members has doubled since I took the office-or improvement of the organization and management

of the association, its PR, finances--we managed to get

important partners, and also to prepare and develop new

projects. We are an eminent member of the international

association FCEM, where we hold an important position

and we are the voice of Czech female entrepreneurs.

ČMAPM is a member of the international association

FCEM (Femme Chefs d´entreprises mondiales), where

you became the European vice-president in 2017. Why is

the FCEM membership important for ČMAPM and what

are the benefits for the members?

FCEM is an international association of female

entrepreneurs, which was established at the end of

World War II in France. Only one association of female

entrepreneurs per each country can be a member,

and the Czech Republic is represented by ČMAPM.

Today, approximately one hundred countries from

every continent, or rather, a hundred individual national

associations, are members of the FCEM, which means

about five million female entrepreneurs around the

world. That is a large network for the development of

business relationships, finding new partners, expansion

abroad, or just sharing experience, thoughts and ideas.

FCEM is a permanent member of the UN and it also has

its observers in the EU. FCEM has concluded a strategic

partnership with UNIDO, which is the economic agency

of the UN. We participate in projects that go beyond

entrepreneurship, through which we connect women of

various levels on all continents.

ČMAPM started a campaign called Choose Women this

May. Why was this campaign created?

The Choose Women Campaign is a part of the International

Day of Female Entrepreneurship, which is supported

by the UN, for which I am the Czech ambassador. The

campaign usually takes place in November and its goal

is to support female entrepreneurs. On a day selected

in advance, the campaign supports buying products

and services produced by women. As a great number

of small businesses, especially small entrepreneurs and

self-employed people, were hit by the pandemic--and

there are many female entrepreneurs among them--we

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decided to help them by recommending their products

and services on social media. Since May, we have

recommended around 100 women. Anyone can

nominate them. We review the nominated names and

the council picks the most interesting ones. We received

very good feedback for this campaign and it is also very

popular on social media. Many entrepreneurs are happy

that they got new clients due to this campaign, and other

media have started to be interested in them.