Women’s Forum Asia

1^st edition – 15-17 May 2008

Gathering 700 leaders from all over the world, the inaugural meeting of the Women’s Forum Asia was a great success. These three days have been a very exciting moment, an influential one, by the richness and the quality of these open debates around the crucial theme "Growth and Sustainability: How women are making a difference". 125 speakers adressed the theme of the Fourm; among them: Hung Huang, Yue-Sai Kan, Jing Xin, Rajendra Pachauri, Yu Dan, Yu Yu. Creativity, Innovation, Discovery: these are the words which resume the discussions. It was Women’s Forum responsibility to associate the voices of Asian women to the construction of tomorrow’s world.

 Talents Day

8 July 2008 – Paris, France

Some 200 women identified as "high potentials" came together on Tuesday July 8^th, 2008 at the much-acclaimed musée du quai Branly for the first ever "Talents Day" organized by the Women’s Forum. This gathering dedicated to talent and diversity allowed its participants to enjoy great encounters – four women executives with exceptional careers, including Anne Lauvergeon, CEOs debating on diversity – and sessions and workshops for sharing concrete experiences. The Women’s Forum also welcomed more than 150 young graduates from the "Grandes Ecoles au Féminin" group who gathered in the Diversity Hall to exchange ideas, experiences and best practices and to strengthen the "feminine network" that was a central theme throughout the day.

 Global Meeting

4^th edition – 16-18 October 2008
Deauville, France, "Progress to share, Future to dare"

What constitutes progress? Where are we headed? At a time of major world changes, what forms of progress do we most need and want? How can we ensure that benefits are shared by all? What are our hopes for our future? The Women’s Forum Global Meeting in Deauville will be the moment to challenge conventional thinking, at both a collective and individual level. Ideas, scenarios and provocative views will open minds and eyes in three spheres: the individual, work and society; life sciences and technologies; the global picture.

KEY FIGURES
10%

 BoardWomen Monitor 2008

One out of ten board members is female

The third Bi-annual BoardWomen monitor 2008 reveals that the top 300 European companies now have 9.7% of women on their boards, up from 8.5% in 2006 and 8% in 2004. Of a total 5,146 board seats, women occupy 501. European champion Norway jumped to having 44.2% women on boards as a result of quota legislation. Without Norway, the European growth rate falls back to 9.1% confirming the average growth rate of around 0.5 percentage points over each two year period from 2004 onwards.

 Entrepreneurship

The 2008 Finalists of the Cartier Women’s Initiative Awards have been selected

Fifteen female entrepreneurs from around the world were selected by a Jury of business leaders and entrepreneurs for the Finals of this year’s Cartier Women’s Initiative Awards, an international entrepreneurship contest created in 2006 by Cartier, the Women’s Forum for the Economy and Society, McKinsey and INSEAD. The candidates were evaluated on the creativity, sustainability and social impact of their projects and are now expected to produce a fully fledged business plan for October with the help of experienced coaches.

 Rising Talents

The 2008 International Promotion

The Rising Talents Programme aims at creating every year an international network of 20 to 30 talented women between 25 and 35 years old, in order to identify the talents of tomorrow. They are coming from economic, political, research, civil society and artistic fields from all 5 continents. In 2008, the Rising Talents Programme is developing by recruiting two promotions: an International promotion, which will attend the Women’s Forum Global Meeting in Deauville (France) and a Chinese promotion, which attended the Women’s Forum Asia in Shanghai (PRC). The 2008 International Promotion has now been selected.

 The Founding Partners

12 companies "engaged" with the Women’s Forum

More than just event sponsorship, a partnership with the Women’s Forum is a way of demonstrating a long-term support to this unique initiative as well as a strong involvement in women’s issues. The Founding Partners of the Women’s Forum are associated to all activities throughout the year.

AIG – Barclays – Cartier – Euro RSCG – GDF-Suez – Fondation d’Entreprise L’Oréal – McKinsey & Company – Orange – PricewaterhouseCoopers – Renault/Nissan – Financial Times – Les Echos