In celebration of International Women’s Day, Georgetown University’s Latin America Leadership Program (LALP) joined MET Community to present "WEF DC: Women Entrepreneurs Forum | Beyond 2023: A New Era of Innovation and Leadership," a new platform to foster collaboration, motivation, business opportunities, and personal growth. The forum included two days of public events at the Lohrfink Auditorium, Georgetown University, on March 29, and virtually on March 30, 2023, and was attended by over 200 people in person and 2,500 people virtually.
The Women Entrepreneurs Forum was designed to accelerate pivotal discussions and solutions in critical areas of entrepreneurship ecosystems, entrepreneurial education, and policy creation to empower women in business and foster international collaborations. This forum brought together more than 70 international speakers from twenty countries, including two Nobel Prize winners, CEOs, and VPs of international organizations such as the World Bank Group, the International Monetary Fund, the Interamerican Development Bank, and the US Government. As part of the events, LALP presented a selection of stories of change from recognized program alumni from LALP´s Global Competitiveness Leadership Program.
If you missed the forum or would like to refresh your memory, you can access here the videos of the public events. For more information on this event. please visit wefdc.org
Forum's Goals
1. Build an Entrepreneurial Network and Develop Leadership Persona
Provide insights needed to foster the growth and success of women-led and women-owned ventures, providing leadership strategies, best practices, and key business frameworks for solving different business problems with immersive, real-world examples and methodology of entrepreneurial leaders, as well as the tools and technologies used by leading-edge companies both locally and internationally. Foster discussions on the different ways to be part of a startup community — from launching a company or buying a business to investing or being an adviser or intrapreneur within a larger company.
2. Celebrate Women Entrepreneurs
Women entrepreneurs go through a lot to launch their business and keep it running. This forum wishes to celebrate women's tenacity, accomplishments, and contributions to developing the global economy.
3. Support and Solidarity for Female-owned Businesses
Encourage participants to patronize women's businesses or products and support them on social media, as well as invest in their companies, donate, or mentor aspiring female entrepreneurs.
4. Inspire Women to Launch New Ventures
New entrepreneurial leaders need to know how to create sustainable value and launch ideas, motivate and develop talented people, and champion innovative approaches. The forum aims to inspire women with good business ideas, to kick-start a venture, and execute their vision with the right business plan and model and a go-to-market strategy.
ORGANIZERS
Based on the McDonough School of Business, Georgetown University’s Latin America Leadership Program (LALP) develops innovative non-degree executive education programs that aim to educate, connect, and inspire Latin American emergent leaders in the pursuit of the university’s mission of teaching and service for the common good. LALP's annual flagship programs— the Global Competitiveness Leadership (GCL) and the Innovation and Leadership in Government (ILG)-, together with its custom programs, public dialogues, and alumni initiatives help to foster deeper links between Georgetown University and the Latin American region
MET Community is an international non-profit organization that promotes and supports sustainable, responsible, and innovative female leadership through training, mentorship, and networking.
The Women Entrepreneurs Forum DC was created by Yanire Braña, president and founder of MET Community, a non-profit organization that supports and promotes women's entrepreneurship through training, mentoring, and networking activities. Yanire has accumulated over two decades of experience in knowledge management, communications, marketing, training, leveraging information technology, change management, and innovation.
