“Charter Your Own Path”, an event hosted by the Purdue University Women in Business (WIB) organization, is the fourth in a series of five events encompassing the first International Women’s Network (IWN) Summit.
Candace Junee, a digital marketing coach for women entrepreneurs, will be the event’s keynote speaker. This is a virtual event occurring on March 27th from 8AM - 12PM. Beyond the IWN Summit, this event will double as WIB’s 12th Annual Monarch
Leadership Conference.
Besides Junee’s keynote speech, the conference will include a diversity and inclusion panel, a company spotlight, networking, and breakout sessions
The three additional participating organizations are Hungary’s Female Management Network (FMN), Portugal’s NOVA Women in Business, and the UK’s Strathclyde Women in Leadership Network. Each organization will host one event during International Women’s Month, which will comprise the summit.
Spurred by the use of technological communication during the pandemic, Hungary’s FMN founded IWN.
In April 2020, forced by the pandemic to halt in person meetings, FMN turned to an international platform. FMN focuses on bringing women together throughout Hungarian universities by focusing on its core values: ambition, talent, and networking.
“When the lockdown started and the whole operations of FMN shifted to being virtual… I had the idea, since we are already doing everything online, [that] it wouldn’t be so weird to have others join us in an online environment,” said Ágota Mike, FMN’s 2020 President.
From there, Nóra Szolláth, FMN’s current IWN project leader, researched universities around the world whose mission statement aligned with their own. One of these organizations was Purdue’s WIB.
WIB hopes that the international outreach will draw students together in a way that allows for personal connections to form.
“COVID is giving us an excuse to connect with [those] in different continents,” said Zainah Nayef, a member of WIB’s marketing committee, “I do hope that people gain that connection, or just put their foot in the door [to] meeting people from other places.”
Attendees who participate in the events should walk away with a sense of international community, empowerment, and belonging.
“I hope that they [attendees] continue this ongoing effort to build connections with people from diverse backgrounds,” said Tiffany Tran, WIB’s Vice President of Professional Development.
FMN’s event will be on Thursday, March 18th from 12 - 2:30 PM and will consist of two parts. The first part, hosted by Eleonóra Bacsó, Director of Diversity and Inclusion at McKinsey & Company, will discuss the pandemic’s impact on female workers. The second part, #IAmRemarkable, hosted by Tímea Csontos, will discuss the skills needed to promote yourself effectively.
While this is IWN’s first venture, there are hopes to continue the experience in the future.
We wanted something to be more continuous and have a long lasting connection. Time with everyone,” said Szolláth, “[Therefore], when you go to another country to study in a different university, you can find an organization that is similar.”
The international connection will provide participants with a way to build each other up, no matter the distance.
“I want to continue to show, not only to our own members from our organization, but the school in general, that this is far beyond the individual, and it is a more powerful position of empowering women who are trying to equip each other with the necessary tools and resources to make it in the workplace,” said Tran, “That’s really a testament to how strong the summit is, and I am so excited to be a part of this.”
WIB invites all students, no matter their background, to join in on both events. Students can register at https://linktr.ee/wibpurdue. The cost of attendance for the Monarch Leadership Conference is $3.