DamesZaken Alicante
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A network for Dutch-speaking women entrepreneurs on the Costa Blanca. Co-founded and built up from the very first drinks. I help organise the meet-ups, run the social media presence, and build and maintain the website.
The challenge
It started with a handful of women entrepreneurs who had moved to Spain and wanted to talk shop in their own language now and then. One get-together, a WhatsApp group, that was it.
It kept growing, and that is when the real work started. There had to be a place where people could find the calendar, see who was behind it and join in. The tone had to stay easy to walk into, because that is what brought people back.
A community does not run itself either. Every month a venue, a date, and people who know in time that something is happening. And whoever comes once only comes back if it was worth the trip.
What I did
I co-organise the monthly meet-ups: finding venues, getting the planning together and making sure something real happens every month.
The meet-ups are set up so people actually get talking. Usually free, you pay for your own drinks, and sometimes there is a format around it: a speed-date carousel, a company visit, a tour with locals.
Visibility runs through social media: announcements, write-ups and keeping the calendar in view.
I designed and built the website and still maintain it, including the events calendar.
My co-founder has since moved back to the Netherlands. The meet-ups carried on. Three of us now steer the network, and it keeps growing across the Costa Blanca.
Outcome
From a single get-together to monthly meet-ups in and around Alicante. Women finding each other, working together and doing business.
For my work this is the proof. Bringing people in and keeping them, and putting something solid together every month: that is exactly what I do for clients.