Article by Desirée Widell
Photos by Andrew Byrne
Joy of play was the key centence of Alena Mechtchanova’s buisnes idea. She was one of the ten contestants who got the chance to pitch in front of a jury at the business idea contest held by the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Enterprise and Industry.
Her idea was called Mystery Vacation, a pitch that stood out from the rest of the contestants ideas since the other ones centered much more around creating platforms on the internet. Her idea was about real life, making cities more fun to for vaccination for children.
“People says, that after they got a kid they never went on city vacations anymore,” said Alena during her pitch explaining that it is a lack of activities in the cities for families with children she wants to takle.
Families with kids together with young playful people was her main target group. The main idea was grown from her background in theatre and game design, made to encourage the playfulness in everybody. The idea is to rent or buy a flat in Copenhagen (the city she is currently living in) and, as a tourist atraction, create a special room. Once the visitors get inside it the game begins. She is a lot inspired by a computergame where you go into a room and you are supposed to solve a lot of puzzles before you get out.
”I have av background in theatre and game design, and I always wanted to corporate my expertise in business”, Alena Mechtchanova says.
The flat in copenhagen is just the beginning. The global business idea is to expand flats full of puzzles and games in different themes into other cities and countries.
Alena was one of only two women pitching their ideas in the contest, an reflection of how the field of business actually looks like.
”It is a male dominated market, is harsch to get into it and face it. Maybe it is because it seems like a competitive market, and therefore women do not dare to get in to it. And it is a pity”, says Alena Mechtchanova.
