Last week, Eurosender’s COO, Silvana Rodríguez had the honor of participating at the 8th Global Entrepreneurship Summit (GES), the world’s most important gathering of entrepreneurs and investors around the world. The event took place from November 28th -30th, 2017 in Hyderabad, known as India’s center of technology.

Global Euntrepreneurship Summit (GES) 2017

The event gathers annually entrepreneurs from all over the world, working in different industry sectors and having experience in running companies of different sizes. This year, the event focused on women entrepreneurs, under the title “Women first, prosperity for all”.

The participants were rigorously selected to ensure that investors, mentors, and entrepreneurs will come together and that the event will open the path to investment matchmaking.

When it comes to gender equality in leadership positions at work, the figures in Europe show a big discrepancy between men and women

The focus on women entrepreneurs is an auspicious choice, at the time when in Europe, only 5% of the founders are women, while in start-ups just 9% are in CxO positions, including only 6% CEOs (according to a report issued by State of European Tech). Bringing, in the public discourse, topics related to women inclusion in the workplace and their empowerment to become founders means challenging the status-quo and promoting a business environment where gender is no longer a hindrance towards success.

The main topic of this year’s edition of GES acts as an added effort to involve, promote and bring women to the front line in all aspects of life. It is a recognition of women’s contribution to the world’s economy and thus, to the global transformation. Entrepreneurs, women and man alike contribute to prosperity by creating jobs and improving the quality of life of many others.

Creating a company culture where women and men have equal access to top executive positions

At Eurosender, we believe in equal opportunities for both men and women. We are well aware that employing and supporting women in their career have a positive impact on our company and beyond, on the economy and society overall. We continue building our team, aiming at keeping a gender balance and giving women the same chances to get to the highest levels of the company.

Together with other 1500 entrepreneurs coming from 130 different countries, Eurosender’s COO, Silvana Rodriguez represented Slovenia (where we set one of our business’ premises). The event was covered in one of the main media outlets in the country. Silvana had the chance to participate in multiple discussions and panels focused on entrepreneurship, women in leadership positions, innovation and investment. Besides promoting Eurosender business, Silvana was one of the females participating in this event, who proves that women are slowly making their way up. There is still much to be done to tackle the gender gap at the top level positions in companies and we certainly want to be one of the positive examples.

We believe that for both men and women, the world has to be a great place to be a founder. Women should enjoy the same trust as men do when it comes to investment in the businesses they own or the businesses they run.