Google’s Womenwill to host International Women’s Day event “SheLeads”

Womenwill is a Google initiative to create economic opportunity for women everywhere so that they can grow and succeed. Helping women make the most of technology to build skills, get inspired, and connect with each other through training, events, and advocacy, Womenwill aims to drive conversations promoting gender equality to benefit everyone.

“SheLeads” an event celebrating International Women’s Day 2019 by Google’s Womenwill, will take place at Hatch Works on Saturday, the 23rd of March 2019 from 9am onwards. The event, organized by Google’s business community in Sri Lanka, Google Business Group Colombo (GBG Colombo). GBG Colombo has been hosting an annual event to celebrate Women’s Day in the past, such as “Girl Talk” and “Leads in Heals”. The theme of this year’s event, “SheLeads”, will be “Leadership – for the workplace and for the Entrepreneur” this year.

The event will have a host of speakers and presenters who will address some of the broader topics of Leadership and Entrepreneurship under two tracks. The keynote will be delivered by Shanuki De Alwis, Managing Director of Vision One while a host of other prominent female leaders from across Sri Lanka will be covering a broad spectrum. Some of these interesting topics include – women who break barriers, balance for better, leadership in the workplace, breaking the glass ceiling, unconscious biases alongside more business topics like selling outside Sri Lanka, growth hacking, innovative business models, unconventional pricing tactics, negotiation skills and more. In addition, there will be some hands-on sessions such as Latin Dancing for beginners by Tarja De Silva (DanceFit Instructor and Choreographer), glamming up for the workplace by Amanda S. Kandage (Artistry by Mandy) and more activities on meditation, mindfulness, yoga, healthy meals, art therapy etc.

Speaking about “SheLeads” event, Womenwill Lead for Sri Lanka, Indu Nanayakkara said, “Our main focus with this event as well as the continuing Lead – workshops by Womenwill is to empower women with both skills and the right mindset that is essential for successful entrepreneurship”.

Google started the Womenwill initiative to bring together women entrepreneurs, to advocating for more inclusive workplaces and partnering with groups like UN Women to drive conversations around gender equality, Womenwill develops and supports programs to help women build skills, get inspired, and connect with each other.

It’s an exciting time to be alive, and to be a woman. With women around the world stepping up to embrace leadership roles and unconventional carriers by shaking off age old conditionings and stereotypes. It is at the very heart of Hatch to strengthen women entrepreneurs and create the most conducive work environment for women to lead. And we are delighted to partner with Womenwill in organising Sheleads this year to inspire more and more women to be empowered towards embracing their best selves be it at work or building their own startup said Randhula de Silva – CEO of Hatch.

Gender gaps persist in many aspects of home and work life, in many different parts of the world. But what would happen if we could erase them? According to research by McKinsey, advancing women’s equality could increase the global GDP $12 to 28 trillion by 2025. As part of making the world’s information accessible and useful to everyone, Womenwill wants to level the playing field for women, which leads to economic benefits not just for themselves, but for their families, communities, and society.

Google’s Womenwill program is now present in over 15 countries with more than 40 Google Business Group chapters worldwide with a global community of female entrepreneurs and working professionals totaling to over 25,000 from all industries.

After the successful launch of Google’s international Womenwill Program last year (2018), Womenwill has run multiple workshops and training events for female entrepreneurs and working professionals across Sri Lanka. Womenwill’s focus is to empower women across the world to take ownership of their initiatives and to thrive in the business world. It is aimed at creating equal opportunities for women in the workplace by giving them the resources, skills, and knowledge needed to be competitive not just locally, but globally. In Colombo, Google’s womenwill program is managed by GBG Colombo, which is one of Google’s four major user communities in the world.

This event is open to the general public and is free for attendance by registration. The event is supported by Google and hosted locally by Google’s Business Community for Sri Lanka (GBG) along with Hatch Works, as the official venue partner. Visit this link to Register: https://goo.gl/cWQxNG.