2014 Global Symposium on Women’s Entrepreneurship

Stockholm, June 17-18 2014

All over the world, women are important drivers of growth. More and more women are joining the workforce and getting involved in entrepreneurship and innovation, starting and running businesses. Still, fewer women than men start businesses. And women owned businesses generally remain smaller than male owned businesses.

The first Global Symposium on Women’s Entrepreneurship was organized in 2012. It builds on the work by The Diana Project and Diana International, a network of academic researchers working with women’s entrepreneurship and innovation.

The 2014 symposium in Stockholm, will be organized directly after the 2014 Diana International Research Conference.

By organizing the two conferences back-to-back, we aim to lay the foundation for a global network for enhancing women’s entrepreneurship. Over time, we hope to bring together all the global stakeholders that are needed to make real change: entrepreneurs, financiers, service-providers, academics, educators, policymakers, and media representatives. Therefore, the symposium and the network both have a multi-stakeholder approach.

The 2014 Global Symposium on Women's Entrepreneurship will address two major themes:

• Women’s entrepreneurship as a driver of economic and social value for communities and countries
• Women entrepreneurs recognizing and achieving high potential for their businesses

Within these larger themes, an array of interesting topics will be explored. For instance: how do entrepreneurs access opportunities through markets (local, regional, national or global)? How do they get access to resources such as talent, networks and financial capital? Where do we find innovative products, services and business models? And what does entrepreneurial leadership look like?

During the symposium there will be plenty of opportunities for networking and learning from each other.

We will also showcase interesting initiatives and programs from all over the world. It can be policy initiatives, private initiatives, or public-private partnerships. The showcases will take place on stage and in our piazza for sharing ideas. If you are interested in showcasing your initiative, please contact magnus.aronsson@esbri.se for more information.