Let’s make International Women’s Day count

Happy International Women's Day! 

Today marks international women’s day, celebrating women’s achievements worldwide and acting as a catalyst when it comes to gender equality. Fuelled by global movements for women equality such as #MeToo and #TimesUp this year’s theme is #PressForProgress with a strong call-to-action to press forward and progress gender parity. 

All over social and mainstream media, I can see friends and strangers holding up signs showing their pledges.

 So what?

Tomorrow most of these pledges will be forgotten and people will move on with their life until next year’s theme and a new pledge. I’ve been there before.

A lot has happened since last year’s IWD, I left the corporate world and started my own marketing agency Springboard Group. But that was not enough, I wanted to create a lasting impact and give back to the community. After meeting a high school girl, I realized the need for a mentoring community of “sisterhood” where women and girls inspire each other and above all empower each other. And born was NextGen Women Network with the vision to boost the number of women in leadership roles by using mentorship as means of inspiring the next generation of female leaders.

This was just the beginning…

Shortly after I joined the mentorship steering committee of the Asian University for Women Support Foundation - an independent, international liberal arts non-profit university for women located in Bangladesh, providing a world-class education and enabling young women to lead change in corners of the world that need it most. It was the second year that women from AUW in Bangladesh came to Hong Kong during the summer for internships. During this time I was lucky enough to mentor Dipannita (picture) and meet with the other bright young women interning in Hong Kong over the summer.

Building Bridges

As an avid TEDx follower, I was delighted to join the TEDxTinHauWomen committee in fall 2017 and was part of the first event in Hong Kong around the theme “Bridges: Two Become One”. This event was filled with inspiring women, ranging from Liza Avelino, a mountaineer and domestic worker in Hong Kong to Fiona Callanan-Thorsby, who lost her leg in the 2004 tsunami in Thailand to Christina Tahoces in her talk “Sleep, Love, Poop”. Watch the videos HERE

Empowering women to be the innovators they are born to be…

Ever heard of startup weekend (SW)? SW is a 54-hour bootcamp that takes participants from a business idea to a working prototype, demo or presentation. It’s all about learning through the act of creating. In February 2018 I facilitated the first Global Startup Weekend Women Hong Kong. It was one of over 30 Women’s SW’s happening around the globe on the same weekend and the winner of this edition is currently in Paris with the other global winners celebrating IWD.

When two quirky Austrians meet in Hong Kong…

...and immediately click! That’s how I felt when I met fellow Austrian Regina. Regina is the host and founder of #impact shining the spotlight on people making a social impact with the work they do. Much like the people that she interviews, Regina is driven by her passion and dedication. So when I sat down with Regina in January to discuss NWN and #impact it didn’t take long for us to decide that we should partner up and we recorded my first ever podcast episode that #impact released today just in time for IWD and to celebrate their Season 3 theme – all about Women in Social Impact where we will track down the most inspiring female change makers in town.

At the end of this month, we will release the first Episode for NWN (bonus episode for #impact). Stay tuned for more and in the meantime listen to Regina and I laughing and chatting in total anticipation for what’s to come in the next months HERE

Let's move from talk to action

Bottom line of this post is that I’d urge you this year to make your words count, write down your pledge and make it happen! There are so many ways to support and empower your community, I just wanted to show you what I did in 2017/18 to hold myself accountable.

I am looking back at an exciting year and an even more exciting future – a future that is inclusive and diverse...

My pledge for this year to keep empowering girls and young women especially through NextGen Women Network and the Asian University for Women.

What’s your 2018 pledge and how are you planning to make it happen?

#IWD #PressForProgress #internationalwomensday #iwdhk #womeninbusiness #leadingwomen #nextgenwomennetwork #nwn #mentoring #IWD2018