Celebrate the modern woman at the 2019 Women’s Entrepreneurship Day (WED)
Since 2013, WED has brought together a network of female movers and shakers to discuss what it means to be an active member of the global economy. Each year on November 19, in over 144 different countries and at 65 different international universities, women gather to discuss what they need in order to succeed in the current business climate. In other words, how can their efforts positively impact our world?
Women’s Entrepreneurship Day aims to empower women and girls to take on lead roles in business communities around the globe. To date, WED has impacted more than 4 billion people—and the number continues to grow. This year, trailblazers in all aspects of business will share their methods of management, innovation, expansion, and more. As one participant says, It is an “…opportunity to be surrounded by fellow businesswomen who openly share their achievements.”
The 2019 WED Summit will be held at the United Nations in NYC. This year the theme is “The Power of Growth” with a focus on how to alleviate and eradicate poverty. There will be talk of WED’s past achievements, like supporting the education of hundreds of Syrian refugee girls in Jordan; presenting scholarships to girls in Uruguay; and sponsoring 500 microloans to underprivileged women so they can start their own businesses.
One of WED’s main goals is to provide a safe and supportive environment for women to express themselves and reveal their dreams of financial success. By sharing personal stories, participants will foster the sense of community and support that’s needed to move forward toward their goals. Overall, WED will be working hard to inspire and assist the next wave of global leaders.
The truth is, women are becoming more immersed in the business sphere than ever before. For example, roughly 500,000 new female-owned companies are expected to join the U.S. marketplace over the next year. Clearly, now is the perfect time for women thriving in our global economy to share insights and stories of how they rose up in the ranks of leadership.
WED 2019 in Minsk, Belarus
The week-long event in Minsk, Belarus is sponsored by Julia Malkova, founder and CEO of ProWomen.by, a company focused on helping female entrepreneurs reach their economic goals. Malkova is also a Marketing Professional and Brand Strategist interested in highlighting women’s work on various social media platforms. She has been a WED Belarus Ambassador since 2016.
The General partner of the event is ОАО “Belagroprombank”. The event is supported by USAID Belarus, Embassy of Sweden in Minsk, International Finance Corporation (IFC) in Belarus and General Media Partner – Интерфакс News Agency.
Belarus is a former Soviet Republic surrounded by Russia, Ukraine, Poland, Lithuania, and Latvia. It has a population of roughly 9.5 million people. The capital, Minsk, is an obvious place for the WED Conference because it’s a developing IT hot-spot. It’s home to more than 1,300 IT startups and companies and around 105,000 IT employees. Belarus is a thriving open-source community, where individuals combine their skills to develop, try out, and adapt open source software items.
But while technology is thriving in Belarus, some things, like gender roles, remain somewhat stuck in the past. Overall, men in Belarus are considered more powerful than women and they hold the top seats in the economic and political domains. For example, according to the World Bank, 9 out of 10 credits are given to male entrepreneurs in Belarus.
The women in Belarus have several strikes against them, including lack of funding, hardly any support from family and friends, few chances for education, and minimal role models. Clearly, now is the time for women to gain recognition beyond the household. Besides earning economic freedom, women are poised to make a positive difference in the human rights movement.
Keynote speech by Colleen Kinsey
This year, Colleen Kinsey, CEO and Founder of international digital marketing company Kinseyso, is a speaker and panelist. In her keynote presentation, Breaking International Barriers in Business – Women in Leadership, Kinsey will share her experience traveling the world as a digital nomad.
Colleen visited 44 countries; what she learned during this time changed her personal and professional life forever. She met countless women struggling to earn a sustainable income. Soon it became her mission to help these women flourish in their own businesses.
In Breaking International Barriers in Business, Colleen recounts her many adventures – not all of which were successful! –in a lively way that is sure to connect with attendees.
Public workshop by Colleen Kinsey
How Blogging Brings in Better Business – Strategic Online Growth details the many ways in which a blog can raise your business to the next level. Colleen Kinsey has created the internationally recognized and highly respected blogs, Travel Meets Happy and Coustii.
In this workshop, she will share her expertise and offer tips on how to make your blog stand out in the crowded marketplace and positively impact the growth of your company.
Colleen’s work has been featured in a number of media outlets including BuzzFeed, Travel Oregon, Go Euro, and Johnny Jet.
