Elżbieta Olszewska, the founder of the interactive Gingerbread Museum is the winner of the second edition of the Microentrepreneur of the Year competition organized by The Citi Handlowy Leopold Kronenberg Foundation of Citibank Handlowy. The Jury of the competition recognized the originality of the undertaking - modern education through lessons of history, craft and the Polish language. The museum is the first and only one real-live Gingerbread Museum not only in Poland but also in Europe.
The award ceremony was held on 13 November 2006 at the Warsaw Stock Exchange. "Our biggest success is the satisfaction of our visitors. From April to the end of November 2006 our museum was visited by over 20 thousand people. Enthusiastic messages in our Memory Book, congratulations and lots of clapping during our shows are the best evidence of customer satisfaction. Our work is a source of joy and great satisfaction both to the owners of the Museum and its employees. The award we have received today additionally affirms that passion and great ideas are the key to success " - says Elżbieta Olszewska.
The interactive Gingerbread Museum is located in the Old Town in Toruń, in an old granary.
In a room that pretends to be a 16th century gingerbread factory traditional gingerbread baking shows are held. The participants of the show, who become trainees of the gingerbread master, actively participate in the whole process: they learn the ingredients of gingerbread, sift flour, crush cardamom, cloves, mix warm honey with the flour and spices, all by themselves. Then they knead the dough, roll it, put in into a form and bake it in a special oven. The entire show is held in the Old Polish language. The museum also offers interactive lessons for children, who listen to old legends, learn the history and craft. We try to promote and support programs that facilitate business development. This year we once again award the best Polish microentrepreneurs. In the second edition of the competition we received over 100% more applications than a year ago. The aim of the competition is to promote microentrepreneurship and stress its role in economic growth. At present it is estimated that the SME sector generates about 35% of GDP. There are 3.5 million companies operating in Poland, and over 90% of them are entities employing up to 9 people, i.e. microcompanies" - says Iwona Jaworska, President of the Citi Handlowy Leopold Kronenberg Foundation.
This year the Jury awarded three equal prizes in the services and manufacturing category. They went to Andrzej Nedoma, the head of "Lido Lang Translation Agency" from Cracow, Piotr Bańkowski from Pruszków (representative of a company manufacturing rubber products for motor, optical and pharmaceutical industries) and Rafał Płatek from Myślenice (the owner of "CREAM SOFWARE", which develops and sells software). Three equal prizes in the special BEGINNERS category for microentrepreneurs up to the age of 32 went to: Karol Kwiatek from Cracow (developing interactive visualizations), Wojciech Kosiba running "ELEKTROINFORMATYKA" company from Złotów and Wiktor Karski from Sieradz (the owner of a company producing cardboard packages).
The Jury of the Microentrepreneur of the Year competition evaluates not only the company's business success, but also its influence on local communities and creation of new jobs. Candidates can be nominated by institutions supporting microentrepreneurship and associating microentrepreneurs.
This year's edition was addressed to entrepreneurs who started their economic activity before 30 June 2005. It was also open to young entrepreneurs who are developing their companies - in the "BEGINNERS" category, and who are under the age of 32, irrespective of the date of starting economic activity. Awards are made in three categories: services, trade and manufacturing. The main prize is the title "Microentrepreneur of the Year 2006. This year the total value of prizes is PLN 100,000.
The laureates of the Microentrepreneur of the Year 2005 competition were Michał Kaszczuk and Łukasz Osowski from IVO-Software, nominated by Pomorskie Centrum Technologii in Gdynia. The IVONA speech synthesizer developed by the Polish microentrepreneurs allows people with impaired vision to use a computer. The synthesizer turned out to be the best device of its type in the world. Its constructors won the Blizzard Challenge, an international competition held in Pittsburg. World-class experts recognized "Ivona" speech synthesizer as the best technology for the artificial production of human speech. According to their opinion, the quality and naturalness of IVONA synthesizer's voice are definitely the best and leave achievements of other producers far behind. The winners received a prize of USD 4 000.
This year the jury of the competition was composed of: Andrzej Arendarski, Presient of the Polish Chamber of Commerce, Andrzej Malinowski, President of the Confederation of Polish Employers, Grzegorz Galusek, President of Microfinance Centre, Dariusz Żuk, Chairperson of the BCC Student Forum, Andrzej Jaszczuk, Head of the NBP Economic Education Portal Department, NBPortal Editorial Office, Tadeusz A. Mosz, Telewizja Polska S.A., Prof. Elżbieta Mączyńska, President of the Polish Economic Society, Piotr Szczepański, President of the Rural Development Foundation, Izabela Norek, President of the Micro Initiative Foundation and Andrzej Dżuryk from the Consumer Banking Sector of Citibank Handlowy.
