Beirut is witnessing on the 11th of next May the convening of NAWF Women Entrepreneurs in its eighth annual edition as the leading forum specialized in the affairs Arab Women Entrepreneurs.
This year’s forum titled "Enabling a New Generation of Arab Women Entrepreneurs" will be held at the Phoenicia Hotel under the patronage H.E. Mrs. Bahia Hariri the Honorary President of the Forum.
The forum comes at a time when women’s and youth entrepreneurship and innovation has gained more attention, whether from governments or the private sector, as part of efforts to develop small and medium enterprises given their vital role in achieving balanced and sustainable development.
The Forum brings together a select group of participants and speakers, including ministers, officials, financial experts and business leaders, and representatives of international organizations, as well as a number of entrepreneurs and representatives of business incubators and accelerators.
The Forum will feature prominent speakers from Lebanon as well as from Arab and foreign countries, Including HE Mrs. Bahia Al Hariri, Member of the Lebanese Parliament - Honorary President of the Forum, H.E. Mr. Emmanuel Bonne, Ambassador of France to Lebanon, H.E. Mr. Nicolas Sahnaoui, Former Minister of Telecommunications, HE Mrs. Delphine Borione, Deputy Secretary General for Social and Civil Affairs of the Union of the Mediterranean, Spain, HE. Ms. Reem Badran, Vice-President and Board Member of Jordan’s Chamber of Commerce, HE Dr. Jihad Azour, Former Minister of Finance , Mr. Gilbert Doumit, Managing Partner at Beyond Reform & Development, Mr. Walid Mansour, Managing Partner at MEVP, Mrs. Annie Parseghian, Investment Officer, International Finance Corporation (IFC), Mr. Paul Chucrallah, Managing Director of Berytech Fund II, Dr. Steve Harvey, Dean of Suleiman S. Olayan School of Business at the American University of Beirut AUB, and Dr. Hiba El Hajj, Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Medicine in the American University of Beirut.
Speakers also include a number of Women Entrepreneurs; mainly Mrs. Rana Chmeitely, Founder of The Little Engineer, Ms. Soumaya Merhi, Founder of Bread Basket, Ms. Yasmeen Hilal, Founder of Alemni, and Ms. Doha El Assaad, Executive Director of Markaz Bayt el Lougha.
The Forum which is organized by Al Hasnaa Magazine and Al-Iktissad Wal-Aamal group will feature interactive sessions and hands-on workshops, as well as one-to-one networking opportunities.
It will also highlight the experiences of entrepreneurs and innovators, coming from different countries and generations. The concluding session will also feature success stories of outstanding women pioneers who have taken the entrepreneurial leap and who will share insights of their achievements and future plans.
The forum will shed the light on the ways of empowering women through innovation and entrepreneurship that should imperatively be coupled with institutional mechanisms and high-level collaboration to bolster their work and projects. It will therefore open the door wide to put the business environment on sustainable growth path, and prepare the groundwork for needed financial solutions to support growth. The participants will also discuss how the digitally empowered generation is changing the way we do business and accessing new markets and segments that traditional businesses are still lagging to serve.
This forum provides an interactive platform for business leaders, entrepreneurs and innovators to share their experience and expertise.
The program’s interactive sessions will focus on:
- Women entrepreneurs: A new force in the Arab economy
- Putting your business on a sustainable growth path
- Funding for growth
- Capitalizing on the digital transformation
- The future for accelerators
Workshops will tackle the following topics:
- Securing capital to fund growth
- Means and tools to transform innovation into a driver of future growth
- Education vs. Entrepreneurship: Which Path Wins?
- Moving to the e-commerce arena
- Starting a business in Lebanon
- Founding startups in rural areas
