APEC Women-led Start-Up Accelerator Workshop
In order to enhance female entrepreneurial participation and boost the business competitiveness of women-led startups, the Small and Medium Enterprise Administration (SMEA), Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) of Chinese Taipei and Ministry of Cooperatives and Small and Medium Enterprises (CSMEs) of Indonesia co-host the event on August 26th-27th through virtual ways. Mr. Hanung Harimba Rachman, Deputy Minister for Financing, Ministry of Cooperatives and Small and Medium Enterprise of Indonesia, and Ms. Pei-Ti Hu, Deputy Director-General, Small and Medium Enterprise Administration, Ministry of Economic Affairs of Chinese Taipei have joined in the event. Apart from that, there were 9 speakers in the workshop, and STARTBOARD are also the partners in this workshop, we provide two high-quality lecturers not only guide the female entrepreneurs. but also share their experience of starting a business. The first lecturer is Romona, the founder of Share 4 Impact, whose startup project has been selected by women’s startup lab from Silicon Valley in 2016. And another one is Hans, the founder of Ontoco, who has provided consulting, training, and coaching for achievement-oriented clients worldwide.
This workshop aside from the speakers, more than 40 more participants, and they from all over the ASIA, such as Chinese Taipei, Indonesia, and other APEC economies have participated in the workshop.
【The Importance of empowering women entrepreneurs】
Mr. Hanung Harimba Rachman, Deputy Minister for Financing of CSMEs, and Ms. Pei-Ti Hu, Deputy Director-General of SMEA opened the workshop with a speech. “CSME of Indonesia make an effort on providing services for women entrepreneurs, and we hope that all the participants in women-led start-up workshop can treasure this platform to learn and seize this opportunity to exchange information and networking” indicated Mr. Hanung Harimba Rachman.
"As women entrepreneurs' role in economic development has become more and more important, it is clear that every government needs to ensure a gender-friendly entrepreneurial environment in their respective economies," said Ms. Pei-Ti Hu.
"We know that the potential of women entrepreneurs has not yet been fully unleashed and that by empowering women entrepreneurs in the APEC economies, we can contribute to the region's overall inclusive growth and share prosperity," continued Ms. Hu, as she emphasized the significance of women empowerment and the essential goal of the workshop.
Romona
We care, we share, together we Impact. This is the core value and the reason why Romonastarted her own business. Share 4 Impact encourages people to share their talents by opening face-to-face sharing sessions. At the beginning of her sharing, she talks about the digital transformation because of COVID-19. Due to the Epidemic, many offline activities have been canceled, Even the world's most iconic Consumer Electronics Show was forced to cancel. But it transformed into a dedicated exhibition mode. And there have more and more offline campaigns that have altered into online ones. It's would be the trend in the future. As a result, outreach to media and buyers became very important. After that, Romona shared about a project event called “WiSE 24”, and how it helps women’s startups build their brands and outreach to others in the global. In the event, there has an online brand page, which is a platform for startups to outreach others when having online activities.
Moreover, the press kit on the brand page made it easier for the press, business, and buyers to reach out to the startups. And the platform has more than 80,000 media from all over the world which could help startups team connect to the media easier. In the end, Romona encouraged all participants to use LinkedIn into their best BD partners, because there are over 650 million people on it. “why we are a startup and why we are an entrepreneur, the answer is that we want to make an impact to the world. And how to make it depends on us. All the female leaders, we are the one” said Romona.
Hans
Hans has over 30 years of corporate guidance experience. How to prepare before climbing up the mountain of being an entrepreneur and being successful? Hans indicated that stamina, work habits, and team inspirations are three keys elements. Stamina includes resource’s stamina, team’s stamina, and the entrepreneur’s own stamina. And about work habits, Hans stated that entrepreneurs need to pick their own working hours, so they wouldn’t over-work.
Moreover, they should care about their family and health as well. Third, when it comes to team inspiration, confidences and motivations are two essential requirements in a team. “As a leader, leading by inspiration is significant,” said Hans. At last, he also emphasized that all the entrepreneurs should do the things that are playful and fun for them.
Conclusion
In the Q＆A section, all entrepreneurs’ questions are very diverse and enthusiastic such as how interaction and online events will change due to Covid-19? or how to reinforce core value through day by day practice. And the speakers have responded passionately to those questions. After the workshop, STARTBOARD, as an ASEAN incubator in Taiwan, we hope that it can efficiently enhance female entrepreneurial participation and help eliminate the limitations for women’s entrepreneurs. Moreover, we regard it as important for Southeastern countries to have cross border collaborations on assisting businesswomen.
At last, STARTBOARD is glad to have Romona and Hans, two of the excellent speakers in the event, and we hope to see more and more female entrepreneurs starting their own business globally. And STARTBOARD is always here to be the support for them.