Istanbul to host female entrepreneurs and business leaders at Dell Women’s Entrepreneur Network global event 2013

DWEN 2013 Conference - Instanbul, TurkeyOn 2nd June, the fourth annual Dell Women’s Entrepreneur Network global event will kick off in Istanbul, Turkey.  As a vibrant city in one of the fastest growing markets in the world, I’m thrilled that Istanbul will have the opportunity to host over 200 inspirational female entrepreneurs, business leaders and media from the Americas, EMEA and APJ. A three-day event, the Dell Women’s Entrepreneur Network conference will highlight the positive impact women have on business and technology and unite some of the top global female business owners in a vibrant entrepreneurial community.  With a wide range of keynotes, panels, breakout sessions and pre-conference labs covering a variety of issues critical to fast-growing businesses, attendees will have the opportunity gain perspective on these topics from an impressive roster of global entrepreneurs and business leaders.

The Dell Women’s Entrepreneur Network is part of our Women Powering Business initiative and underscores our on-going commitment to support the advancement of women.  We believe that the emphasis and investment we make in this area sets the bar for our industry, and we are extremely proud of the work our teams and network members are doing.  It is an investment we make on the understanding that women have an innate flair for entrepreneurship and a unique perspective and approach to business.  Working with our partners, like Intel, Dell’s end goal is to accelerate opportunities for women business owners through improved access to knowledge, technology, capital and networks helping them grow and benefitting the communities where they live and work.

Our experience of previous years’ events has shown us the unique ‘multiplier effect’ that female entrepreneurs can have not only on their own communities but our global economy.  This led to the theme for this year’s event, which will underpin an exciting new global movement that we will officially launch in Turkey in June – ‘Pay It Forward’.  

The goal of Pay it Forward is to harness the power of network members and Dell women employees to positively impact women’s entrepreneurship around the world.  The movement will challenge members of the Dell Women’s Entrepreneur Network and our Women Powering Business LinkedIn groups to pass on their knowledge in the form of mentoring, open up their networks, share their technology success stories and/or provide capital to support women launching new businesses, ultimately reaching 1M up-and-coming women entrepreneurs by the end of 2015.  During the event, we’ll be discussing this initiative in much more detail and taking some exciting next steps to help women worldwide fulfil their dream of business ownership.

For the 2013 event, we have an incredible line up of speakers including; Elizabeth Gore, Resident Entrepreneur at the United Nations Foundation; Melek Pulatkonak, founder & curator, Turkish Women’s International Network (WIN); Julie Meyer, founder & CEO, Ariadne Capital; Moira Forbes, president & publisher, ForbesWoman; Padmaja Kumari Mewar, joint managing director, HRH Group of Hotels; Sarah Curran, founder, my-wardrobe.com; Simone Ross, COO, Techonomy; Aysegul Ildeniz, regional director, Intel plus many more. I’m excited to be joining the event for the first time this year along with other leaders from Dell including Steve Felice, Karen Quintos and Ingrid Vanderveldt.  You can find the full list of speakers here.

You’ll be able to follow DWEN 2013 in Turkey via Livestream or join the conversation on Twitter at #DWEN.

About the Author: Aongus Hegarty