To develop projects and strategies or increase one's skills, how important is it to network? So much.
This is the spirit in which the experiences related to the digital marketing and eCommerce training course for women with a migrant background were shared on Tuesday in Naples, at the headquarters of the Dedalus Social Cooperative, in the presence of female trainees, associations, sympathizers and curious people.
Thanks to the project R.I.D.E. (Reach Inclusion Through Digital Empowerment For Migrant Women) Dedalus, in collaboration with power2Cloud, has offered a rich training program over the past year, providing face-to-face and online classes.
Fatima Ouazri - Dedalus tutor, with the support of Ilena Rogosta - and Alessia Impagliazzo of power2Cloud, organized a calendar of activities: in-person and online sessions to learn about Google tools and improve collaboration and productivity.
Space has also been given to the Shopify eCommerce platform and all those activities useful for online sales, but also for communications, support and data analysis, to undertake more appropriate strategies.
The team-building moments were contributed not only by mentors and area companies, such as inStazione and D'Ordia, who shared their business digitization, but especially the girls with their questions and curiosity.
Knowing and using new digital tools, supporting each other's study, and moving forward in unison was the real lesson. Clearly with some difficulty, but without age, nationality, curriculum, or interests being a hindrance.
Because digitization and inclusion after all represent, although in different areas, not a goal, but a path that must be itinerant, facilitated, shared, welcomed with awareness, preparing the ground, because the context is most important.
Occasions like these, in fact, can help to blossom interests, nurture skills, suggest alternatives, because study and work, help to cultivate self-esteem, criticality, autonomy, in some realities this is vital more than in others and let's face it, it is not always so obvious.
The goal of R.I.D.E.'s project was certainly not to bring out eCommerce managers or experts in marketing automations, but women who can understand how sales and communication processes work, such as job opportunities in the digital sector.
In short, a time also to listen to one's interests and consider writing, photography, customer service, platform management, or logistics, as a possible job, certainly to be deepened and supported with an internship experience.
"It is an important challenge in a city like Naples," explained Elena De Filippo, President of the Naples-based Dedalus Cooperative.
"We have planted a small seed, because digital skills are fundamental, for us, for our daily lives and can also become an asset for boys and women with migrant backgrounds.
The R.I.D.E. project was started a year ago and has gone through several stages. We activated a network, some collaborations were already there, others were born and bore very important fruits.
I want to thank power2cloud who supported us in this journey and the entities we met and who supported this initiative."
"The course was intended for foreign women and digitalization," explained Alessia Impagliazzo of power2Cloud, "but if you excluded nationality, it is true that women in this sector are still underrepresented.
I wanted to mention figures such as Hedy Lamar, whom many may remember more as an actress than as an inventor, or Karen Spärck Jones, but also the more current ones of Melissa Ferretti Peretti, CEO Google Italia, Anjali Sud, CEO Vimeo or Yamini Rangan, CEO HubSpot, to show that we are there and we can.
The program, which touched on the functionality, processes and strategies of tools such as Shopify, Google Workspace, HubSpot, was certainly not aimed at certifying digital excellence.
We are aware that the topics are vast and need to be studied in depth, even in the power2Cloud team we continue to study nonstop to achieve new skills and certifications, but they wanted to create a time for sharing and knowledge, reflections and opportunities, an overview, to explain processes and roles that revolve around activities such as those of an eCommerce.
Digitization and online sales can and should help even small local businesses, such as those in Campania, and women - including foreign ones - who can find in online activities, a rewarding job to be more autonomous, increasingly prepared and aware of the tools to be used, in smart working or in the office, taking advantage of the native knowledge of languages - such as Arabic, English, French - which is in high demand not only from the foreign market.
There have been moments of difficulty - he then concluded -, no need to deny it.
We did what we could, but along the way several women dropped out of the course because they had children too young or more complex realities to manage; those who stayed and continued can now offer a meaningful testimony for those to come who decide to try.
"We are glad to have contributed to the success of the R.I.D.E. track. Ana is a very important resource for us!" To Chiara Gargiulo, co-founder inStazione, the task of telling about the conciergerie project, all female ,that she conceived with her partner, Katia Cupo.
It was a particularly significant moment, because after two months of internship, Ana, who took the courses, was hired into the inStazione team.
For many years in the world of tourism, Chiara and Katia thanks to inStazione now offer tourist services in busy areas, such as those of Naples Station and Pompeii. This reality is promising; they plan to scale up quickly with a larger project, not only in Campania.
"We sell private, group tours, experiences, transfers and concierge services in one physical location, but we realized we needed to digitize it.
Thanks to power2cloud we were able to adopt tools like Shopify, HuSpot, and Google Workspace, which help us organize not only online sales, but also internal processes.
We will continue this journey with the support of Ana. We have also invested a lot of time and attention to support her as best we can and explain to her the sale of tourism services, which are often tailor-made and therefore more complex. We are very satisfied!"
"After my university studies," explains Ana, "with the R.I.D.E. training course taken with power2cloud, I discovered a new reality, even the topics I thought I knew required new study.
For inStazione, I follow the uploading of tourism 'products' to the online catalog, follow the monthly reporting, optimization of team work and processes, to help improve conversions, of course the discussion with power2Cloud and the consultants who support us for communication activities is constant."
"If I want to improve my future, I have to study first," Ese recounted her experience with enthusiasm and determination. "In the last period, I took eighth grade and started to study for graduation, but I haven't succeeded yet because I have a child.
When I was told about the R.I.D.E. project, I immediately thought of following it. I use a cell phone, but I am not very familiar with computers. Studying in the beginning was just difficult, but I succeeded also thanks to the help of Ilena, Fatima and Valentina from Dedalus, who accompanied and followed me even after the R.I.D.E. courses, and helped me to improve.
I studied HubSpot and digital marketing, I understood better how eCommerce works. I thought I would fail, but I did it. Thank you!"
"I am from Indonesia and I have been living in Italy, in Naples, for three years. I am very sorry not to be with you -- she appeared on the maxi projector Yulianti with a video message for those present --, but at this time I am busy at the Montessori School in Pozzuoli as a teacher of nutrition for children.
I worked in marketing for six years, I thought I was familiar with the topics before starting the program, I was wrong. I found useful content, but new tools and completely different from what I knew. Even though it is the basics, I gained new skills!
I thought opening an online store would be easier. I thought a social account, some information entered to present products was enough, but no, you can't wait for sales. Today I know where to start: you have to build a good site, focus on ADS and storytelling, manage and analyze data.
During the course, we had the opportunity to engage with credible professionals such as the experts from power2Cloud and D'Ordia, a company from Campania that uses Shopify as its sales platform for footwear. It's in clear example of how digital marketing and eCommerce can help a physical store market itself online.
When D'Ordia sent shoes to organize the shoot for its social, we combined theory with practice, we felt very involved.
The course was rich and beneficial. The most difficult content to follow those of SEO, SEM and Google Analytics, so I spent more time finishing the assignments."
"When it was proposed to me to participate in this project," concluded Mariola, who is of Polish origin and has been working as a cultural language mediator for 19 years, "I had several misgivings, because I am of that generation that was born with pen and paper. A world opened up to me!
Everything we see on the Internet, consult or use as users, seemed complex and so far away that I thought I would never get there, instead thanks to the R.I.D.E. project many things are now clearer.
Also working with much younger people made the comparison and this experience beautiful.We put a lot of effort and study to put together all the information we gained.
I hope to put what I have learned into practice. For the past few months as Dedalus we have been thinking about investing and creating a brand.
We have a tailoring workshop that we offer four times a week in which we create items and products by recycling donated movie tarps.
We want to take this project forward to turn it into a space that can house and employ not only women."