The countdown is on for the seventh annual Dell Women’s Entrepreneur Network Annual Summit (DWEN) — a global gathering of 150 of the top female entrepreneurs, business leaders, media and Dell partners that this year will take place in Cape Town, South Africa, June 27-28, 2016.
Cape Town was chosen this year because Africa has the world’s youngest and fastest-growing population, and is widely considered the world’s largest source of untapped talent.
Real business happens around the globe as a result of these events. For example:
- Jacqueline Arias, Founder of Republica in Australia is now importing organic baby food to India as a result of connections made at DWEN New Delhi in 2012
- Lili Hall of KNOCK, Inc.,and Elisabete Miranda, of CQ fluency developed a mutually beneficial relationship. KNOCK developed the rebranding identity elements and strategic positioning for CQ fluency, and in turn, CQ fluency is the go-to resource for KNOCK for multicultural communications that are locally relevant as well as accurately translated.
- Maria-Helena Pettersson, Partner at Ernst & Young Brazil, established a Winning Women program after making significant alliances at DWEN in Rio
This year we will also be discussing new research Dell conducted in partnership with IHS that will be announced on June 22 at the Global Entrepreneurship Summit in Palo Alto, California. This 2016 Women Entrepreneur Cities Index will measure a city’s ability to attract and support high-potential women entrepreneurs.
The 25 cities in the ranking were chosen from the list of 50 global cities in the Dell Future-Ready Economies (FRE) Model in order to make comparisons between the two indices, with geographic diversity utilized as key criteria in city selection.
This research began during the 2016 DWEN Future Ready Research Symposium chaired by Dr. David Ricketts from the Technology and Entrepreneurship Center at Harvard. The research symposium brought together 40 Global thought leaders, women entrepreneurs, academics and media to develop insights for the model.
“By focusing on where change is happening, where it isn’t, and examining what interventions are working, we can facilitate even greater change,” Geri Stengel wrote in Forbes after the event.
Key takeaways from the conversations at the Symposium included:
- Access to capital is still the No. 1 challenge that women entrepreneurs face, although the numbers are showing a slight improvement
- Creating robust ecosystems with incubators, accelerators and mentors makes a world of difference for entrepreneurs—it’s all about the network
- Cultural norms and their policy implications put serious binds on female entrepreneurs; everything from parental leave to supplier diversity regulations to financing for education have an impact
Ayanna Kai Morton (left), winner of the Seventeen Magazine STEM contest met Laura Brounstein (right), special projects director at Cosmopolitan and Seventeen Magazine, while attending the DWEN Youth Track last year.
At the 2016 DWEN Summit discussions will explore how women can grow and scale their businesses in tangible ways through networking, keynotes, panel discussions, interactive breakouts, workshops and community engagement.
“I’m not sure how much revenue the DWEN initiative generates,” Mandy Gilbert, founder and CEO of Creative Niche, commented last year. “But I can tell you that I’m involved with several global and local entrepreneurial events and conferences, and this is by far the most positive, meaningful and important network of which I’m a member.”
I like to think that is because DWEN is about more than revenue generation. It’s about Dell’s commitment to help power the success of entrepreneurs – by not only developing technology solutions, but also nurturing a community of female entrepreneurs.
Speakers this year will include:
- CherieBlair, Founder, Cherie Blair Foundation
- Jenny Dawson, Founder, Rubies in the Rubble
- Kirsten Dickerson, Founder and CEO, Raven + Lilly
- Elizabeth Gore, Entrepreneur-in-Residence, Dell
- Leila Janah, Founder and CEO, Sama Group and Laxmi
- Vivian Kleynhans, Co-founder, Seven Sisters Wine
- Lauren Maillian, Founder and CEO, LMB Group
- Sheila Marcelo, Founder, Chairwoman and CEO, Care.com
- Amy Millman, President, Springboard Enterprises
- Videsha Proothveerajh, General Manager, Intel Corporation Southern Africa
- Karen Quintos, Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer, Dell
- Aaron Sherinian, Chief Communications and Marketing Officer, UN Foundation
- Ashish Thakkar, Founder and Chairman, Mara
- Parminder Vir, CEO, The Tony Elumelu Foundation
- Jane Wurwand, Founder and Chief Visionary, Dermalogica
- Lindiwe Zulu, Minister of Small Business Development, South African Government
To keep up with the conversation join me in following #DWEN on Twitter, and watch @DellInnovators for live updates. To learn more about DWEN visit here.