Kuala Lumpur, August 18, 2009
At the Women’s Summit this year, participants were given plenty of tips, advice and motivation to turn breaks into breakthroughs, in line with the theme Can Women Turn Adversity Into Opportunity? More than 1,000 women and men from the public and private sectors who attended the day-long Summit held at the Sime Darby Convention Centre walked away with much more than the inspirational talks and useful learning labs that have become the hallmark of the annual event.
The theme for this year’s Summit was chosen given the economic crisis facing all nations globally. Also as a result of the economic downturn, a number of private sector organisations stepped in to partner the Ministry of Women, Family and Community Development, which organises the annual Women’s Summit, in mutually beneficial ways.
Dell Global Business Centre, whose Managing Director Bobbi Dangerfield, was one of the key speakers, set up a booth at which women – including those who are disabled – were able to sign up to be recruited into one of the world’s leading manufacturers of desktops, workstations, notebooks, servers and storage products.
Dangerfield, who leads Dell’s diversity and inclusion initiatives in Malaysia, said: “Effective diversity management helps us eliminate barriers that prevent us from working as a team, respect each other for who we are and the skills we bring to Dell, and focus on winning in the marketplace. Our ability to truly access the talent of each person, work together and leverage the differences and similarities each of us brings to Dell makes us more productive and ensures our continued success.”
Meanwhile, regional representatives of Soundview Executive Summaries, a web-based company that summarises top-selling business books into information-packed eight-page editions, offered the participants examples of works that have helped millions of readers around the world. Sudesh Panicker, Group Business Development Consultant of Soundview’s Singapore outfit, believes these summarised works, which distill the thoughts of prominent economists, financial gurus and entrepreneurs, are ideal for today’s working woman who is strapped for time.
“Instead of having to go through 200 to 300 pages, our summaries condense all the relevant information of best-selling books into eight pages, which anyone can find the time to read. Also, we find that those who read our summaries tend to remember the key points being made by the authors better than those who plough through the complete versions of the books.”
In addition to job opportunities at Dell and book summaries from Soundview, participants at the Women’s Summit also benefitted from the interactive Learning Labs. This year, there were four Learning Labs, two on the art of communicating, one on creativity and the fourth on franchising. The labs were:
• Speak Up Successfully. This Learning Lab, ran by Heather Hansen, helped women and men improve their ability to get what they want by understanding how verbal communication works.
• Power Up Your Business Writing Skills. Published author Shirley Taylor impressed on her Learning Lab participants how they can use the written word in the most effective way to enhance their business.
• Unleash Your Creative Genius. Actress, author and trainer Alison Lester knows what it takes to stand out and make your mark. She guided her audience to think creatively to gain a competitive edge.
• Franchising Opportunities. Led by Salahuddin Sulaiman of Perbadanan Nasional Berhad (PNS), this Learning Lab discussed the mechanics of franchising and informed the participants of the kind of assistance PNS provides.
The Women’s Summit 2009 is the seventh to be held. For the first time, however, the Deputy Prime Minister, who delivered the Keynote Address, answered questions from the floor following his presentation. A key differentiator between the Women’s Summit and other conferences that deal with women’s issues is that, here, participants have the ears of the Ministry and of representatives from the highest level of government.
During the Summit Roundtable, that took place in the afternoon, women sat in groups to discuss various topics related to the working environment, work-life balance and other relevant gender issues. They produced lists of recommendations to the Ministry, which were presented to the Minister of Women, Family and Community Development Dato’ Sri Shahrizat Abdul Jalil.