Participants

Social Entrepreneur — Founder & CEO, London's Community Kitchen & Urban Farmer

A Le Cordon Bleu trained chef and member of the Royal Academy of Culinary Arts, awarded an MBE for his work on community welfare and food sustainability. His projects are largely run by women; as a partner of King Charles III's “Harmony” philosophy he carries its message to the COP31 summit in Antalya.

Director & Co-founder — Project 2nd Chance

An award-winning leader and British Empire Medal (BEM) recipient. She shares, through her own inspiring story, how empowering women transforms communities when women are trusted with a platform, education and the confidence to lead.

International Agricultural Trade — Co-founder, EDN

Co-founder of EDN, an international trader of organic and conventional fruit and vegetables, with over 25 years in the sector. Working directly with growers and cooperatives across Europe, Africa and South America, he carries local produce to European retail.

Festival Guest — International Agricultural Trade

She joins the festival alongside Robert Blomsteel, who works in the international fruit and vegetable trade, and takes part in the presentation on connecting local producers and cooperative products with the European market.

Entrepreneur, Pastry Chef & Creative Talent

Winner of Heel Holland Bakt 2023, entrepreneur and creator of inspiring food concepts, Mercedes combines craftsmanship with creativity and an entrepreneurial spirit. Her talent and passion for pastry have even led her to create cakes for the Dutch Royal Family. At MeeT Datça, Mercedes brings her Dutch baking expertise and entrepreneurial experience to Datça, where she will connect with local makers and ingredients to create new inspiration, collaboration and meaningful connections.

Psychologist, Family Counsellor

A talk on the invisible labour of women.

Chef — Casius Antioch Kitchen (Michelin Bib Gourmand 2026)

A gastronomic journey from Hatay's Yayladağ to Istanbul's Cihangir; co-founder of the first and only restaurant to bring Antakya cuisine into the Michelin Guide. Talk and workshop.

South Aegean Development Agency — Head of Rural Development

A talk on rural development support programmes.

President, Anatolian Ahi Women's Cooperative Union

Talk topic: the founding story of the Anatolian Ahi Women's Enterprise Production and Management Cooperatives Union and the work of its member cooperatives.

General Coordinator — Anatolian Ahi Women's Enterprise Production and Management Cooperatives Union

A former tax inspector; president of the Federation of Independent Auditors' Associations and founder of the Centre for Civil Society and Democracy Studies (stkdestek.org, siviltoplumakademisi.org). Member of the Ankara City Council executive board. Owner of Kooperatif Okulu (kooperatifokulu.com), Kooperatif Pazarı (kooperatifpazari.com) and the Kooperatif TV YouTube channel; author of "Cooperatives in 100 Questions" and "Cooperative Support Programmes in 50 Questions", and a producer of cooperative training videos. A cooperative volunteer, in his own words. Talk topic: cooperativism in Türkiye and around the world.

President, Lycia Women's Cooperative

The women's cooperative that opened a fashion store in Edinburgh. Talk.

President, Ortaca El Ele Women's Cooperative

A talk on developing products from field to table.

Management Consultant, Human Development Foundation

A talk on digital capacity for women's cooperatives, branding strategies and being a woman entrepreneur in business.

Founding President, Dore Mimi Talent and Education Foundation

She runs art-centred projects for disadvantaged groups, children and the elderly, spreading the healing and unifying power of art. A versatile entrepreneur with 15 books and 33 documentaries. Talk.

Entrepreneur — Datça Silk Craft

Works in sericulture, silk fabric and silk products in Datça. Atelier and workshop sessions.

Founder — Asırlık Tezgâh (The Century-Old Loom)

Creates modern products with Datça's nearly forgotten çul kilim weaving. Atelier and workshop sessions.

Festival Runway Designer — Academic (Bahçeşehir, Bilgi and Kültür Universities)

Merve Kahveci is a fashion designer and lecturer whose expertise in fashion design pairs many years of industry experience with a parallel academic career. She has won a range of awards in national and international design competitions, and has developed a research-driven production practice through collaborations with local and international professionals from different disciplines. She teaches in the fashion design departments of long-established educational institutions. At her Istanbul-based studio she also creates bespoke pieces that bring design and craftsmanship together, and runs workshops and creative education programmes centred on the permeable relationship between fashion and art. For the festival fashion programme's runway presentation themed “Tortu: From the Local to the City”, she designed the collection “Palimpsest: Datça's Living Archive”.

Fashion Curator — Cubis Art Istanbul

A multidisciplinary creative trained in arts and culture management as well as fashion design, she pursues her curatorial practice within Cubis Art Istanbul and independently. Her work brings together contemporary art, fashion, design and cultural production in interdisciplinary projects. Working across exhibition-making, art management and writing, she explores the relationships between artist, artwork, space and audience. She has curated a range of exhibitions and art projects — most notably Rafine, Erbab, Art In Shop and Görüngüler Dünyası — and treats the interplay between art and fashion as a central part of her practice. As curator of the festival's fashion programme “Tortu: From the Local to the City”, she led the curatorial process of the runway presentation of the collection “Palimpsest: Datça's Living Archive”.

Republic of Türkiye — Ministry of Trade

A talk on state support for women's cooperatives: KOOPDES grant programmes, training and consultancy schemes, and the registration and reporting processes run through the Koop-Bis system. A first-hand account of the steps that most often stall women's initiatives that are founding — or have just founded — a cooperative.

Founder — Kocatarla, Datça

Founder of Kocatarla, a Datça brand that uses the local almond in its entirety, from shell to oil. With almond flour milled from the fresh harvest, almond oil and fig products, he turns the peninsula's best-known crop into higher-value goods, and shares a zero-waste approach that returns every otherwise discarded part of the almond to production. Talk and tasting.

International Chef • Gastronomy Entrepreneur • Founding President, ANFED – Anatolian Chefs Federation

Trained at Le Cordon Bleu Paris, Tamer Özkan has worked as a chef, kitchen manager and gastronomy coordinator for international hotel chains throughout his career, and today brings that long professional experience together with his own gastronomic vision. Founding chef of Beynel Bitez, listed in the Michelin Guide's Bib Gourmand selection, Özkan places geographically indicated products and women's cooperatives at the centre of his work. By bringing the labour of women producers from across Türkiye together with professional kitchens, he aims to protect Anatolia's gastronomic heritage, keep it alive and introduce it to the world.