By Mahir Sheikh
When the Food Enterprise Centers (FECs) closed in March due to COVID-19 safety measures, the LIFE Project had to reimagine what successful entrepreneurship incubation and building social cohesion should look like in this new environment. Over the last few weeks, the LIFE Project made substantial adjustments to support members virtually and provide timely resources to meet new and ongoing challenges. To accomplish this, the LIFE Project shifted the incubation program and business support online and added workshops that encourage skills to build resilience during this pandemic.
Adapting Virtually
Members attend a virtual session on Minimum Viable Product
With FECs closed, the LIFE Project team adapted business support services and other offerings to take place fully online. This required many LIFE trainers to quickly find innovative ways to adjust to the new virtual environment. Osman Cakiroglu, CIPE’s Project Director in Turkey, transformed his living room into a classroom to host pitch seminars for LIFE members. This included using a board game as a “stand” for his laptop and converting his TV into a whiteboard with the use of chart paper.
Trainer Osman Cakiroglu’s work-from-home space
At the same time, the LIFE Project team is looking ahead to transform traditionally in-person events and activities for this digital environment. The upcoming Business Pitch Competitions for the current cohorts in Istanbul and Mersin will be entirely online, and we hope to introduce gastrodiplomacy events that will connect refugee and host community members on virtual platforms. For the LIFE team, the top priority remains supporting members as they seek to find ways their food business can survive, and even thrive, in the current environment. Creative methods enable a smooth transition to a virtual environment that maintains and even strengthens this commitment.
Support Services Capturing the New Normal
As the LIFE Project seeks to quickly adjust ways in which to support members, the Consortium is drawing on its expertise to provide support to the LIFE teaching team through virtual “training of the trainers” workshops. Eric Fretz, Faculty Affiliate from the William Davidson Institute (WDI) at the University of Michigan, led a virtual workshop for LIFE Project trainers on strategies to support members in times of uncertainty. He reviewed personal, team, and leadership skills over the course of the workshop and stressed the importance of positivity and openness. He highlighted that physiological safety through virtual bonding is an important feature of transitioning to a virtual environment to ensure members feel secure and comfortable sharing their experiences and vulnerabilities.
Consortium Member WDI Michigan’s Eric Fretz conducts a workshop on personal resilience and leadership for LIFE Project trainers and team members
As physical distancing remains a priority, the workshop highlighted the ways in which time spent apart can be an opportunity for LIFE members to seek out new roles and take positive risks. Trainers, like the members, are encouraged to approach challenges posed by delivering the incubation program online with creativity and openness. Together, the Consortium partners, trainers and members are working towards a sense of normalcy in the face of adverse circumstances.
LIFE Entrepreneurs Stepping Up
LIFE Entrepreneur Nadide leads a workshop on business pivot strategies for fellow members
LIFE Project alumni are also lending a helping hand. Nadide Yidrim, a recent graduate from the LIFE Project entrepreneur incubation program, is facilitating peer learning among the members. Nadide successfully pivoted her business of baking and selling artisan bread from ancestral seeds to selling sourdough starter kits through online orders and offering virtual bread making classes so that buyers can make their own bread at home. Now, she is holding online workshops on adaptation strategies for her fellow LIFE entrepreneurs, focusing on ways that entrepreneurs can sustain their businesses through online resources. Nadide especially emphasizes the value of social media platforms as a way for entrepreneurs to expand their clientele and to new markets.
As Covid-19 presents new challenges for LIFE entrepreneurs, the LIFE Project sees the new digital environment as an opportunity to provide more people with support in building successful food businesses.