KOCHI: Aspiring women entrepreneurs from across the country will gather in Kochi on Thursday, taking in expert tips at a landmark conference that aims to address their under-representation in running businesses in the field of science and technology.
The ‘Women Startup Summit’ on August 1, being hosted by the Kerala Startup Mission (KSUM) in association with the Indian Women Network under the Confederation of Indian Industries, will bring together successful women leaders, startup founders, policymakers and aspiring women entrepreneurs onto a common platform to share their experiences, aspirations and success stories.
The deliberations, with ‘Developing an Inclusive Entrepreneurship Ecosystem’ as the focal theme, will feature inspiring visionaries whose innovative efforts are changing the world on an unprecedented scale. The event at the Integrated Startup Complex at Kalamassery will also host panel discussions, fireside chats and keynote conversations between female luminaries from a diverse range of disciplines such as technology, business, media and entertainment. Besides knowledge-based sessions, there will be one-on-one interactions that are open for all women participants and attendees.
The opening session will be addressed by KSUM CEO Dr Saji Gopinath. Kerala State Planning Board member Dr Mridul Eapen will deliver the inaugural address, while Teja Ventures founding partner Virginia Tanwill will deliver the keynote speech. This will be followed by a fireside chat between motivational speaker Rashmi Bansal and author-entrepreneur Muthumani Somasundaran.
There will be a separate track for the selected IEDC students, besides an industry round table led by Kerala IT Secretary M Sivasankar. It will be held simultaneously with the Support of State Planning Board. Industry leaders from Kerala, representatives of World Bank, Facebook, Amazon and IBM will attend this session to draw up an action plan.
A session on ‘Honouring the Change Makers’ will announce the National Grand Challenge winner of ‘She Loves Tech India 2019’ and honour her. There are two other nominations for best inclusive workplace: incubators (of women startups) and for startups (with female employees).
About 20 women startups shortlisted from the 'She Loves Tech' national grand challenge will be showcased in the summit.