In mid-August, the PROJECT-E Team Europe met once again for the traditional Strategy Weekend to plan the upcoming year, reflect on past work and, of course, meet old and new team members. This time, the meet-up took place in the Bavarian capital Munich. We kicked off the Strategy Weekend on Friday evening with our traditional dinner in an Ethiopian restaurant to enjoy Injera and Tej. We were especially happy to welcome two “special guests”: Maxime Sauvant and Alexandre Chevalier from the video project Max of Hope joined PROJECT-E for the weekend as they would both fly to Addis Ababa in October to shoot a film about the PROJECT-E Hospitality Institute.

After a great and yummy start, the content-related part of the weekend started on Saturday morning: The Department Heads presented the developments of the last six months, and Chairwoman Nadja Frercksen reported on news from Addis and the Management Board. After the informative updates of the departments, the individual teams had time to plan the coming half year and set up a detailed milestone plan. Afterwards, Stephanie, leading the Talent Management Department, held a workshop on the topic “Getting Things Done” – because time management is everything when working voluntarily for an organisation like PROJECT-E.

Sunday morning started with the elections and re-elections of the Departments Heads and the Management Board. We are very excited to welcome Lorenza as a new member in the (Junior) Management Board, Hanna as the new head of the PR department as well as Stephanie as the new head of the Talent Management Department. After the elections, the individual departments came together again to implement the first steps of their milestone plans. Time passed too fast, and suddenly it was time for everyone to return home. The Strategy Weekend in Munich was once again an inspiring and productive weekend and encouraged all members to continue working for our common vision: Women Empowerment in Ethiopia.

written by Alina Hemm