At the second Istanbul Demo Day, business leaders and community members joined 24 LIFE Entrepreneurs at the Food Enterprise Center as they shared their products and pitched their businesses to potential investors and customers. Many of the entrepreneurs who participated in the first Istanbul Demo Day returned with new pitches, marketing materials, and branding which they refined based on feedback they had received.
During Ramadan, members from the fifth cohort of the LIFE Project entrepreneurship incubation program in Istanbul gathered at the Food Enterprise Center for Iftar. Turkish and refugee LIFE Entrepreneurs prepared shared recipes from their home cultures and exchanged stories over this multi-cultural meal.
Food entrepreneurs from Turkey, Syria, Iraq and elsewhere hosted more than 60 guests from the diplomatic community and food industry for a very special fast-breaking meal during the month of Ramadan.
The event featured a curated discussion on the role of food in bridging communities and creating livelihoods, moderated by LIFE Project adviser Christina Bache, and featuring LIFE Consortium Partner Johanna Mendelson Forman, and LIFE Project advisers Nasser Jaber, a Palestinian-American food entrepreneur and co-founder of Komeeda; and Shirley Kaston, co-founder of the Kök Projekt.
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An introduction to the LIFE Project Gastrodiplomacy Event series, Members of the inaugural cohort shared a rich lunch buffet featuring dishes from Turkey, Syria, and Yemen.
Friends of the LIFE Project in Istanbul had the chance to come by the FEC and meet some of the Members and hear the stories of their journeys to becoming food entrepreneurs in Turkey.
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