‘SheLeads’ IWD event by Google’s Womenwill to focus on leadership and gender balance

• Women who disrupt business and break barriers will lead the way
  
   

A balanced world is a better world. This is the idea behind this year’s International Women’s Day, which was celebrated on 8 March. 

In celebrating this annual event, Google’s Womenwill program focuses 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 equity in the world. 

In expressing this mission, Google also finds it necessary to include men in the ongoing conversation about gender equality, bring them to play an active role in promoting equality and closing the gap between perceived efforts and lived reality.

Womenwill strives to create economic opportunity 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, Womenwill aims to drive conversations promoting gender equality to benefit everyone. 

As part of achieving Balance, for better; Womenwill and Google’s Business Community in Sri Lanka (GBG Colombo), together with Hatch Works, is hosting ‘SheLeads,’ an event celebrating the International Women’s Day, on Saturday, 23 March at Hatch from 9 a.m. onwards. This is a free event and is open to ladies from all industries, who are working professionals or female entrepreneurs and business owners. 

In keeping with the theme of Womenwill, which is ‘Leadership,’ this event strives to help build leaders from among the entrepreneurial women and women working in corporates. While focusing on Leadership, SheLeads will have a series of key talks and snapshot style workshop sessions on a host of topics from Women who Break Barriers and Being a better leader to Overcoming Unconscious Biases, Disrupting Businesses in Sri Lanka, Managing Work Life Balance, Understanding your customers and retaining them, Negotiating your way up, Breaking the Glass Ceiling, Selling outside Sri Lanka to APAC & SEA, Too much sitting: problems and solutions, Dealing with Social Media Mudslinging, Simple Growth Hacks, Employee to Entrepreneur, Balance for Better, Building your Personal Brand Online, Easy Payment Gateways for Business and more. 

Motivating them with key talks and active workshops would be a panel of top industry female leaders and visionaries including: Shanuki De Alwis – General Manager of Vision One, Varuni Amunugama Fernando – the Co-Founder and Joint Managing Director of Triad Ltd, Randhula De Silva - CEO of Hatch Works and Chief Disruptor of Goodlifex; Prof. Arosha Adikaram – Professor at University of Colombo; Sandra De Zoysa – Group Chief Customer Officer at Dialog and Founding Member of SLASSCOM, Dayangani Perera – Senior Manager of International Marketing and Sales at CBL, Thilani Samarasinha – Head of Legal at Galle Face Hotel and Co-Founder of Lanka Comic Con, Teesha Wickramatunga – Founder of Workout.lk, Stephanie Siriwardhana - Former Miss Universe Sri Lanka, Nirosha Fernando – Founder/Director of Hedgehog Global, Niloufer Anverally – Founder of Cotton Collection and Leather Collection Lonali Rodrigo – CEO/Lead Designer at House of Lonali, Brindha Selvadurai Gnanam – Director of Hatch Works, Kinita Shenoy – Communications Lead at IFC and Editor and Writer, Dhanika Perera – Founder of Payhere and Yusra Aziz Eliyas – Founder of Podi Jobs. 

Alongside these talks and sessions, attendees will also have the opportunity to engage in Skill Workshops such as Salsa Dancing with Tarja De Silva – DanceFit Instructor and Choreographer, Simple Self Defence Techniques with Kunchana Ranasinghe – Director of Krav Maga, Boss Girl Makeup Fixes with Amanda Suduweli Kandage – Founder of Artistry by Mandy, Meditation and Yoga Therapy with Dr. Miuru Jayaweera – Director of Colombo Creative and more. 

There will also be a host of pop-ups from up and coming female entrepreneurs and small businesses present at the venue alongside networking activities and more. 

This is a free event and will commence at 9 a.m., with attendees who confirm their seat via prior registration through the link https://goo.gl/cWQxNG .are invited to walk-in as early as 8:30 will have a host of informative, inspirational and interactive sessions to look forward to. 

The event is hosted with the wonderful support from Eva as the Gold Partner along with Harpos and Paan Paan as the Food and Beverage Partners. Brand Partners for this event are PWC, SOZO and PrintIt. The event also has the support of PR Wire, the long-term PR partner for both Womenwill and Google’s Business Community – GBG Colombo. 

‘SheLeads’ is open to the general public upon prior registration and is free to attend. The event is supported by Google and hosted locally by Google’s Business Community for Sri Lanka (GBG) along with Hatch Works.