💥 Make it happen! — Katka Letzing

"Make it happen!" Katka said and we made it happen by starting our WeCoCo talk series with the Co-Founder of Kickstart Innovation, one of the largest innovation platforms in Europe.

Do you know the possibilities for women to be engaged within KICKSTART 2020? Find out more in our WeCoCo talk with Katka.

WeCoCo Talk with Katka Letzing, Co-Founder Kickstart Innovation

KICKSTART 2020 One of the largest innovation platforms in Europe has called for applications from Startups that are interested in making a play for Switzerland’s market and they are looking forward to bring more of female innovation force to the program!

Kickstart bridges the gap between startups, corporates, cities, foundations and universities to accelerate deep tech innovation. There are plenty of possibilities for women to be engaged within KICKSTART 2020!

Science and engineering-driven technologies have the potential to solve humanity’s biggest challenges. They require unprecedented collaboration between powerful established organisations and the most audacious entrepreneurs out there. Each year, Kickstart brings around 100 such entrepreneurs to Switzerland to collaborate with key players for Proofs of Concept (PoC), pilot projects and other innovation partnerships. The program is free of charge (no fees, no equity) for selected growth ventures and it provides exceptional access to the executives and decision-makers of Kickstart’s partners.

🚀 MAKE IT HAPPEN! Kickstart Innovation platform is open until June 8, 2020! Apply as a later-stage tech startup in the fields of Circular Economy, EdTech & New Work, FinTech & InsurTech, FoodTech & Retail Tech, HealthTech, Smart City & Technology apply and become #kickstarters20! ⁣ Moreover, the application is open too for professionals willing to engage with the later-stage startups as advisors and experts!

👉🏼 Apply now at KICKSTART INNOVATION and make diversity driven innovation a reality!

WeCoCo x LittleLadyFunk

We're honoured and excited to meet Sylwia Orczykowska, the changemaker behind LittleLadyFunk. Her idea of rocking the world with the principles of social and environmental responsibility is something you cannot miss. Learn more about creative work, bringing special meaning and joy into her life.

WeCoCo x LittleLadyFunk

The story of a little lady creating big impact for a better world

Let us introduce you to Sylwia Orczykowska, the founder and creative soul of LittleLadyFunk.com. Following her curiosity gene, she left Poland six years ago, living in Istanbul, Canary Islands and Barcelona. She finally settled down in Switzerland, finding a diverse match with multicultural community of Zürich.

Sylwia is a sustainability advocate, contributing several years of her experience in graphic design, art direction and creative production to make the world a better place. She took lead in several beauty and fashion projects, designing visual campaigns, also producing photo shootings for international brands in the last years. At some point she recognised her profound responsibility for the content presented in her creative works and decided to dedicate her skills for the purpose of social innovation and climate protection projects. Concerned about humankind and environment threats, she supports visual storytelling and drives the change for the societies and the ecosystems they live in.

Her parallel inspiration is driven by the fast growing global market of start-ups, as a nourishing alternative for the large-scale corporate business. Supporting innovation, agility and team culture at work, she creates compelling and consistent branding assets for emerging and developing start-up brands.

WeCoCo: Sylwia, how does your mission affect your work?

Sylwia: Maximising impact of the brand and minimising environmental impact is the challenge which I took not only by choosing responsible collaborators but also by applying sustainability principles to my creative work. I intentionally oversee the amount of meetings, phone calls, paper and transport in the creative process with the purpose of reducing carbon emission. My photo shooting teams are built with a special care so the production stages develop smoothly and respect energy consumption. When designing, I use creative space of the projects wisely and reflect on the number of used colours. I also encourage clients to consider sustainable printing, natural inks and recycled papers to determine the size of ecological footprint.

Socially responsible creative work naturally affects not only the audience but also the creator. This type of projects are like a refreshing stopover for my mindset, making me reconsider my behaviors and beliefs. Becoming less biased, less judgmental, more collaborative brings a lot of joy and light into my everyday life.

WeCoCo: How do you live diversity?

Sylwia: I developed an exceptional collaboration with LeanInSwitzerland.org, creating visual communication to promote their women empowerment activity. It results in building stronger community, as well as bringing more awareness and social care about diversity values. Also, I am collaborating with RoomToRead.org, the global organisation designed among others to fight education gender gap and to support girls in developing skills to make their own life choices. Another example of my contribution to building worldwide connections beyond gender is my cooperation with WeCoCo.io – and I feel honored to be portrayed among other outstanding changemakers.

WeCoCo: What kind of collaborations are you looking for?

Sylwia: I would like to expand meaningful business and social network with the brands, the organisations and the creatives who cannot pass by global challenges like inequality, poverty or climate change, for whom UN Sustainable Development Goals are well known and who are actively engaged in reaching them by 2030.

I deeply believe that if we connect now and take action together, we will create the desired impact right on time!

WeCoCo: We aim to become the go-to platform for diversity driven innovation. What do you expect from such a collaboration platform?

Sylwia: Considering my interest in socially and environmentally responsible graphic design and production, I would like to connect with the people for whom the future of the planet matters. In my opinion regular advertisement focused merely on the sales is not enough anymore. Enriching visual tools of marketing by the value of respect and the concepts of diversity and sustainable development is inevitable nowadays. I wish to interest WeCoCo community in this approach so we can set it as a global trend together. Who is in? 😊

Ready to collaborate? – Then let's connect with Sylwia NOW!

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