On July 10, 2021, the first in-person meeting of the 11th generation of “Share Your Knowledge” program mentors was successfully organized in the premises of Belgrade’s KC “Grad”. Due to the pandemic caused by the COVID-19 virus, the previous meetings, workshops and meetings took place via online platform, so this event had significance for all present participants. For participants from Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as for participants who were not able to be physically present, a Zoom link with AV transmission was organized, which enabled quality discussion and exchange.
The event called “Tea Party for Mentors” was also a semi-annual evaluation that gave an overview of the work done so far. Zorana Milovanović, the project manager, facilitated the dialogue and invited the participants to make a cross-section of their work so far and expectations through providing answers to four questions: What was your biggest challenge during the program? What caused you the most frustration? What happened to you during the program that you did not expect? What was the most beautiful thing that happened to you during the program?
The answers showed that one of the most common challenges and frustrations for the participants was the organization of time and harmonization of their obligations with mentoring meetings, but also the fact that the pandemic led to online meetings that present a more demanding environment for the exchange of opinions. On the other hand, most of the mentors stated that one of the most beautiful things that happened to them was the development of a good quality relationship between all of the mentors. One of the mentors said that she was very surprised that she “started thinking as an entrepreneur”, while the other was surprised by how “she managed to find herself within the program”.
After almost two hours of interactive work, the participants continued to socialize within the garden of KC “Grad”, but the topic was still entrepreneurship and exchange of experiences. The next live meeting is scheduled for August 28 in one of the southern cities of Serbia, which will be announced soon.
