Google’s Women Will to host ‘SheLeads’ for second consecutive year

As part of a broader mission to promote gender equality, Google’s Women Will Program and Google Business Community – Sri Lanka (GBG Colombo), together with Hatch Works, is hosting ‘SheLeads,’ an event celebrating International Women’s Day, on 21 March at Hatch Works, No. 14 Sir Baron Jayatilaka Mawatha, Colombo from 9 a.m. onwards. 

This is a free event and is open to ladies from all industries, either working professionals or female entrepreneurs and business owners. SheLeads is aimed at providing expertise, resources, action steps and relationships to catapult women to launch businesses, grow and expand existing businesses and lead in all aspects of their lives.

Aligning with UN Women’s new multi-generational campaign, Generation Equality, the theme for this year’s International Women’s Day is ‘I am Generation Equality: Realising Women’s Rights,’ which will be celebrated on 8 March. 

In celebrating this annual event, Google’s Women Will program continues to focus on the idea that bringing about gender equality in the workplace and empowering women with the skills necessary to bridge gender gaps is crucial in creating more equality in the world. This program believes that collectively, we can make change happen and that we can each help to create a gender equal world.

While focusing on  Leadership’ which is the theme of Women Will, SheLeads will have a series of key talks and snapshot style workshop sessions on a host of topics which strive to build leaders from among the entrepreneurial women and women working in corporates. 

Motivating the attendees with the keynote on ‘Equality is for Everyone,’ and other topics such as ‘Equality in the Mindset – Shaping your Thoughts,’ ‘Equality at the Workplace – Shaping the Work Culture’ and ‘Equality in the Community – Shaping the Society,’ will be a panel of top industry female leaders and visionaries. 

The year 2020 is a pivotal year for advancing gender equality worldwide, as the global community takes stock of progress made for women’s rights since the adoption of Beijing Platform for Action. The Beijing Declaration is a resolution adopted by the UN at the end of the Fourth World Conference on Women in September 1995. This resolution was adopted to promulgate a set of principles concerning the equality of men and women and marks the 25th anniversary this year.  Women Will strives to create economic opportunities for women around the world 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, Women Will aims to drive conversations promoting gender equality to benefit everyone.

The interested attendees are invited to confirm their seats via prior registration and encouraged to walk-in as early as 8:30 to experience a host of informative, inspirational and interactive sessions. Providing support for the women empowerment efforts of Women Will and this year’s International Women’s Day event are Nestle Milkmaid as the Gold Sponsor, Media Wire, a leading public relations consultation and services agency in Sri Lanka as the official PR Partner and Hatch as the Ecosystem Partner. There will be pop-ups available at the event venue, and startups and SMEs have an amazing opportunity to set up a free pop up by e-mailing a request to [email protected]. 

After the successful launch of Google’s international Women Will Program in 2018, Women Will has run multiple workshops and training events for female entrepreneurs and working professionals across Sri Lanka. 

Women Will’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 Women Will program is managed by GBG Colombo, which is one of Google’s four major user communities in the world.