COWE Trade Carnival 2011

Posted by COWE at 12 November, at 09 : 47 AM Print

1. Title of activity: COWE Trade Carnival 2011

2. Goal: The Trade Carnival was organized with an aim to provide a platform for women entrepreneurs to display and market their products to a wider and larger section of the society. The Trade Carnival evoked good response and was well attended despite the situation in the city.

Signing of MOUs on October 13, 2011  
Our partner, ZDH/Sequa has been very supportive to COWE in terms of funding for quality training and infrastructural support. At their initiative, we signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to recognize the common interest and cooperatively pursue activities that build economic parity and enhance business opportunities with the following organizations:
Faridabad Small Industrial Association
Indian Industrial Association of Lucknow
Mohali Industrial Association
Federation of Madhya Pradesh Chamber of Commerce Industry
Ramky Group of Companies
The MOU signed with the Ramky Group of Companies is a huge asset to the members of COWE. Ramky will extend their services to our EDP trained members by providing secretarial, legal, financial, operational and infrastructure and mentoring support which will immensely support budding entrepreneurs in establishing and sustaining their own enterprise.

3. Description of activity: The Trade Carnival 2011 was inaugurated by Dr. J. Geetha Reddy, Hon. Minister for Major Industries on 13th October, 2011 at 6:00 PM. The other honorable guests at the event were Mr. Bhagvantha Rao, MD, SBH; Mr. V. Arumugam, Zonal General Manager, NSIC; Mr. N. V. S. Reddy [IRAS] MD, Hyderabad Metro Rail Ltd.; Mr. Suraj Singh Malhotra-CEO, Namdhari Events & Promotions Pvt. Ltd.; and Mr. A. Karthikeyan Project Director, ZDH/SEQUA; North Indian Partners of ZDH.

In her inaugural address the Hon. Minister, Dr. Geetha Reddy recalled her close association with COWE. She had mentioned that she’s always made time, despite other responsibilities, to attend COWE’s programs and assured that she will continue to support COWE’s activities in the future. On another note, she mentioned that the proactive leadership of the various Chief Ministers of our state has been helpful in her attempt to support women entrepreneurs by allotting 10% plots in all industrial areas to women.

Support

The Trade Carnival has been organized in association with National Small Industries Corporation (NSIC). We were also supported by Ministry of Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises (MSME) – Govt. of India. Additional support was received from the Govt. of Andhra Pradesh, State Bank of
Hyderabad, Hyderabad Metro Rail, Margadarsi Chit Funds, State Bank of India, APSFC, SIDBI, TV9, Kalamandir, NABARD, Lakhotia Institute of Design, Vibes Beauty Clinic, and Apollo Pharmacy.

NSIC is known to organize Marketing Promotion events including participation / organization / co-sponsoring of exhibitions, buyer-sellers meets and marketing campaigns. They were involved with 963 such events in the last financial year. COWE’s trade carnival has been one such exhibition that they have been supporting right from the beginning and their support has enabled us to organize it continuously for the past 5 years. NSIC’s Training-cum Incubation centers have enabled COWE members to gain valuable skills through which they are able to create their own enterprises.

4. Implementation: The exhibition was separated into two sections this year- B2C for businesses to customer interactions and B2B for business to business interactions. The B2C was the section where a wide variety of products were on sale such as designer and casual wear, food products such as custom made chocolates, solar dried fruits, home improvement items, Diwali-themed products such as diyas, candles and other decoration, etc.

The B2B hall was set up this year where meetings between big corporations and our members will take place. Corporations in engineering like BHEL, BEL, Ramky, Hyderabad Metro, Larson&Toubro, IT companies , Food sectors and chains, Textiles industries and others will interact with our members to provide opportunities and mentor in building their capacities.

The food court was set up with stalls selling food products such as south Indian, north Indian and Chinese cuisine along with fast food, desserts and beverages.

B 2 B Meetings

The Innovative feature of T-C 2011 has been the B2B pavilion where interactions were organized with Large Public Sector undertakings and Corporate Houses to explore mutually beneficial business activities.
The Objective was to create opportunities for Women Entrepreneurs. A platform was created where Women Entrepreneurs could interact on 1 to 1 basis with huge corporations in various fields as per the time slots given below.

B2B meetings were arranged for the following categories:

a] Multi product buyers for Service Enterprises
b] Multi product buyers for Supplier Enterprises
c] Multi product buyers for Engineering /Manufacturing Enterprises
d] IT and ITE buyers with Service Enterprises
e] IT and ITE buyers with Supplier Enterprises
f] IT and ITE buyers with Technical Service Enterprises
g] Textile groups with Product and services Suppliers
h] Food Sector companies for enterprises in Food and Health supplement Industry.
I] Hotels and Supermarkets for interaction with Caterers; Bakers and Confectioners etc.

Women Entrepreneurs were divided based on the fields of activity and invited in their specific time slot. After brief introductions, the company representatives discussed opportunities that are available for women entrepreneurs and explained the vendor approval procedures in their company. The company representatives then conducted individual meetings with each entrepreneur. The Entrepreneurs were asked to bring their catalogues, credentials, presentations and product samples to guide the conversations. After the initial round of 1 to 1 discussion, each Entrepreneur came back with feedback from the company about the relevance in the field of activity and the company’s interest and a proposal on how it could be taken up further.

Both, company representatives and the Entrepreneurs had appreciated the initiative taken and believed this could take them further in their business. Almost everyone suggested that there should be more such B 2 B meetings. Feedback forms were collected from most of the participants. We intend doing more such B 2 Bs with better organization, having learned from this initial experience.

The Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that was signed between Ramky Group of Companies and COWE had germinated during the B 2 B planning phase and this was the first successful collaboration that took place during the B 2 B meetings.

Valedictory Ceremony
October 16, 2011, 6 PM

Dr. Daggubati Purandareshwari garu, Hon. Union Minister for Human Resource Development, Govt. of India was the chief guest for the Valedictory Ceremony that took place on the last evening of the 4 day Trade Carnival. The other honorable guests present at the occasion were Mr. R. Karikal Valaven, IAS. Commissioner of Industries, Government of AP, Dr. Hannah, Leader of Entrepreneurship-UEL London, Mr.P.Mohaniah-Chief General Manager, NABARD

Women have inbuilt multi-tasking potential and we only need to give strength to women to bring out their potential said Dr. Duggubati Purandeswari. She said that women and SHGs are contributing to the growth of India in a silent way. She said that Andhra Pradesh is an example of what a state can do with the help of SHGs and how Podupu Lakshmi is a huge success. She said that women are slowing overcoming the socio-cultural barriers but face hurdles such as availability of loans, etc. She said that more and more banks need to come forward to finance women entrepreneurs as women are considered safe payback world over.

She said that though women in rural India too contribute to the economy, their contribution is not recognized as they are largely in the unorganized sector. Sixty percent of India lives in rural India and fifty per cent of them are women. Women in rural India have a problem of marketing their products so she urged COWE to reach out to rural women and bring technology closer to them to bring out their potential.

Earlier Mr. R. Karikal Valaven,IAS, Commissioner of Industries, Government of Andhra Pradesh addressing the gathering said that MSME is the most important and vital and without strong MSMEs we cannot attract investments. He said that the Government has been very supportive of MSMEs and that MSME is the largest employment provider after agriculture. He said that AP state will soon have sector-wise policies and also an exclusive R&D policy. He said that in the 12th Five year plan major thrust will be on MSMEs. He requested COWE to go all out to promote MSMEs and make Andhra Pradesh grow industrially and achieve overall development. AP is ranked third in GDP and is the 4th most populated state in India. He said that AP can reach the No.1 position in GDP.

Launch of the COWE Online Portal

During the Valedictory Ceremony, Dr. Purandeshwari launched the COWE Online Portal – an online platform for cooperative social enterprise to benefit all women entrepreneurs. The Portal hosts updates like COWE news, program schedules, announcements, blog, resources likes schemes, downloads & newsletters, Entrepreneur tips and how-to’s for starting and growing businesses.

COWE Member Product Store is created to showcase member products widening the market opportunities across the globe. The Discussion forums facilitate B2B interactions and provide networking opportunities. They are designed especially for aspiring women entrepreneurs aiming to start or expand their own business. COWE likes to think of it as “A transfer of wisdom that supports growing businesses, nurtures emerging talent, empowering women in their path to success”.

Cultural Programs during T-C 2011

Cultural programmes were held all the 3 days – A brief summary.

October 14, 2011, 11 AM
Seminar on Security Measures for Women wherein Ms. Sundari Pisupati [Legal Expert]; Mr. Benjamin DCP Retd.; Caroline [researcher] and Caroline [Journalist] from U.K.; Mr. A.Karthikeyan spoke about their areas of work in Safety and Security for Corporate Women. The outcome of the Seminar was to take up the Task of preparing a Safety Manual for Women to be made for implementation by all employers. Mr. Karthikeyan suggested that COWE should take up the task for which ZDH will lend total financial support.

Annual Corporate Quiz

October 15, 2011, 11 AM
The Corporate quiz was conducted for the first time during this year’s Trade Carnival on 15th October 2011. It was conducted for women in the Corporate world. Collaborated by ITs AP, the quiz had participation of women employees from companies like App labs, Vision 2K+, Husys Consulting, Safa services, Intelligroup, Oracle India, Infosys , IIIT, Madhya Pradesh Chamber of Commerce, Almondz Insurance Broking company to name a few.

K- Circle India’s premier quizzing network was chosen to research and conduct the quiz. The theme of the quiz was “all that matter with women” and it was all women participation. The quiz was conducted with preliminary, semi final and final rounds each having four cycles of questions.

Ms. Sreemathy Surendar and Ms Chandrakala Gaddepu had won the quiz taking away the rolling trophy to Infosys.

The quiz was conceptualized and organized by COWE members Ms. Geeta Goti and Ms. Veena Prodduturi. The objective of the quiz was to bring in awareness among corporate women on entrepreneurship and the avenues to start their own ventures. The need to start a business on their own is felt by the women who are economically independent and wanted to channelize their innovative ideas that are restricted in their current work.

Participants said they had a good time at the quiz and could meet a lot of women entrepreneurs present at the venue. They were also glad to shop for the oncoming Diwali festival from the exhibition.

October 16, 2011, 11 AM

Workshop for Children in Math and Art

The Vedic Math institute conducted a workshop for children on various math tricks. COWE Member Ms.? Organized the workshop where tips were given to kids on how to perform better in Math.

Similary, an art workshop was conducted by XYZ where participants were given painting supplies and were taught how to create a painting. The participants were allowed to take back the masterpiece they created.

The children thoroughly enjoyed the workshop and were excited to try their newly acquired knowledge in school. The parents were able to enjoy shopping at the exhibition and were able to meet with resources that can help their own ventures. The workshop was a great way to spend quality time with the family on a Sunday afternoon.

Stall Holders Feedback on COWE’s TRADE CARNIVAL 2011

92% were happy, satisfied and felt that the publicity was fine while 8% felt it was not sufficient. This year, there were major uncertainties and hurdles due to bandhs. Despite that there was good publicity and a good footfall.

In general, 89% were very happy, satisfied with the infrastructural facilities, while 11% felt it could have been better and that they faced minor glitches.

There was overall appreciation regarding co-operation from COWE members. 73% were extremely happy, 23% happy (96% in total) and 3% were not so happy.
Trade Fairs are usually for showcasing the products, developing B2B and for year long contacts. While 81% were happy and satisfied, 19% felt they did not do much business. This was despite prevailing uncertain conditions in the city.

Most members and stall holders utilized the opportunity to network and develop B2B contacts. 92% used the platform for networking while 8% were unable to do so.

95% were happy and satisfied while 5% did not appreciate or were silent on the events per se.

88% were happy with the food arrangements while 12% felt otherwise. Some of them felt there could have been a better vegetarian spread.

Those who have been present in the previous Trade fairs opined that the impact is seen later. Some have utilized the opportunity to promote their product

95% are sure/keen on participating in the trade carnival again. Some wanted it more than once a year.Very few i.e. a meager percentage of 5% said they will not participate next year.
BRIEF ON B 2 B MEETINGS AT COWE TRADE CARNIVAL – OCTOBER, 2011

The Objective of B 2 B meeting was to create opportunities for Women Entrepreneurs. A platform was created where Women Entrepreneurs could interact on 1 to 1 basis with various big companies. Big corporates in different fields attended and the meetings in different fields were conducted in different time slots as per the details given below.

Women Entrepreneurs were divided based on the fields of activity and invited in their specific time slot ( as covered in the schedule). To start of the company representatives introduced themselves and the opportunities that they have in general and gave a brief on the vendor approval procedure in their company. After which the group was further broken in to smaller, individual meetings with each company interacting with each of the Entrepreneur one after the other. The Entrepreneurs had come with their catalogues, credentials, presentations and samples in some cases.

After the initial round of 1 to 1 discussion, each Entrepreneur came back with a feed back from the company on their interest/relevance in the field of activity and how it could be taken up further.

Both, representatives of Corporates and the Entrepreneurs had appreciated the initiative taken and believed this could take them further in their business. Almost everyone suggested that there should be more such B 2 B meetings.

Some of the comments that were received are as below.

1) An Entrepreneur, who is into training and development, after her interaction with the Engg.Corporate said that contacts she had developed in the whole year, she managed to make in just one hour.

2) A lady in Engg.Plastics was assured by Bharat Electronics Ltd. that she would be given specifications and tests that her FRP products need to meet. Once that is met, she could get an entry into BEL..

3) Two young Entrepreneurs in IT Services and Web designing were satisfied that they had been given direct contact to the Head of IT in BHEL.

4) An Entrepreneur from Goa was happy that she managed to contact companies in Hyderabad without having to step out of the exhibition grounds.

Many more such feed backs were received.

Feed back forms were collected from most of the participants. We intend doing more such B 2 Bs with better ,organization,having learned from the 1st experience.

The highlight of the B 2 B meetings was – signing of Memorandum of Understanding between Ramky and COWE.Both have decided to put together their energies for the cause of Entrepreneurial growth. Enclosed is a copy of MOU.

Annual Events Trade carnival