Tuesday's Treasure - Event Alert "How Women-Owned Small Businesses Will Save The Economy"

We interrupt our regularly scheduled Tuesday's Treasure post to let you know about a "treasure" of another kind and a very special event she will be speaking at for those of you in the NY Metro Area.

Her name is Kathy McShane and we featured her in a Wednesday's Women of Courage post last year. This Wednesday, March 10, at 9:30am at Waveny House in New Canaan, CT, the American Association of University Women will host Kathy where she will discuss women entrepreneurs and how their growing ranks will change our economy and help lead us out of the financial crisis that continues to put women, their children, and generations to come, at risk.

This blog has been a strong advocate for Women's Empowerment and Women Entrepreneurship. In a blog last year we highlighted the events surrounding the Women's Forum in Deauville, France which has become the "Davos for Women". We have featured pioneering women entrepreneurs such as Shauna Mei, founder of AHA!Life and women, like Kathy McShane, and VC Cindy Padnos of Illuminate Ventures that target women-led ventures, and help them realize their dreams.

Please continue to support the efforts of Women Entrepreneurs and seek them out when next you are looking for goods or services. Your local chapter of 85 broads or Ladies Who Launch are a good starting point.

Thursday's Truths - Women Entrepreneurs at Women's Forum 2010

Day one of the Women's Forum 2010 being held in Deauville, France features speakers including Jennifer Halliday, Global Director of Business Development, Zinio, LLC. and Vivmag, LLC.

One of the major themes running through this Event is how women are becoming increasingly involved in global entrepreneurial activities.

Here are a few findings that were presented in today's session:

- opportunity and necessity are the two primary reasons to get involved in entrepreneurial activities.
- Across the world, women in richer countries are starting an increasing number of businesses with high economic potential and in high-tech sectors.
- In countries with low levels of economic output (GDP), entrepreneurship offers a way out of poverty.

As I reported in an earlier blog, 20% of all entrepreneurs in China are women. Here in the US, Chinese-Americans like Shauna Mei are starting up successful ventures, and capitalizing on the educational and career opportunities that this country presented to them.

There are many exciting programs scheduled for tomorrow's (10/15/10) session including one by Jeanniey Mullen, Global Executive Vice President and CMO of Zinio, LLC and Vivmag, LLC,

Also on tap tomorrow is a session sponsored by Ernst & Young of an inaugural group of CEO Male Champions. The business leaders will come together to define – through specific and actionable dialogue – what it means to be a CEO Champion of women’s advancement and empowerment.

Enlightened men are increasingly becoming involved in previously exclusively all-female groups. I am privileged to have been named as one of the first "Guys Who Rock" by 85 Broads, a global and exclusive members-only network of over 22,000 women (and a handful of enlightened men!)

Wednesday's Women of Courage - Aude De Thuin

Beginning October 14, 1200+ of the most powerful women on the planet will descend on Deauville, France to take part in the 6th Annual Women's Forum, often referred to as the "Davos for Women".

Were it not for the courage and vision of it's founder, Aude de Thuin, who took a personal financial risk to put on the first Forum in 2005, this important event would not have been possible.

In a recent Forbes.com article "Why the world needs a "Woman's Davos"", De Thuin describes herself as " independent-minded, and stubborn". She has spent most of her life as an entrepreneur, having put herself through college working as a model.

When asked why she set out to start the Women's Forum in 2004, she told the interviewer that going to the mostly all male Davos event would be fruitless, since just a small number of women are attendees and small business is not well represented. After being denied bank loans, she sold one of her ventures and put the money toward the first event.

When she became doubtful whether she had done the right thing, her husband told her to "trust your intuition". She took the first courageous step, and never looked back.

This year's Forum promises to be the best ever. Attendance is up 20% over last year, and her list of sponsors has grown to include some of the top firms in the world.

I encourage you to login to the Forum website and view the programs and initiatives they have in play, and consider getting involved.

I hope to see many of you there for the 2011 meeting.

Tuesday's Treasure - Deauville, France

This week, I am devoting most of this blog to coverage of "the Davos of Women" - the Women's Forum 2010 taking place in the seaside resort town of Deauville.

With only 4,500 residents, this is one of the world's only seaside resorts that can be enjoyed all year round, and thus has gained international repute as a result.

According to website Information France, "Through the years, the town has managed to develop harmoniously, preserving its historic, architectural and cultural heritage, while at the same time keeping step with an ever-changing tourist sector. Indeed, only two hours from Paris, this rendez-vous of elegance and art de vivre promises visitors a complete change of scenery, with its many turn-of-the-century villas, traditional half-timbered houses,colourful sun umbrellas on the beach and famous Promenade."

Because of it's beauty, several wealthy women, including Greek shipping heiress, Chyrss Goulandris, have homes there. Her villa is reputed to be where William The Conqueror planned his invasion of France.

French clothing designer, Yves St. Laurent had a home there which he shared with his succession of French Bulldogs always named Moujik.

Deauville is full of delightful restaurants, shops, and hotels. Later this week, I will bring you a few suggestions so that those of you in my network who are going there this week, can take time to "do up the town" with some of the other 1,200 + delegates attending this year's Forum.

Monday's Motivational Makeover - More on Change and the Women's Forum 2010 this Week!

Over this past weekend I posted some information on an exciting event that is taking place October 14- 16 in Deauville, France.

It is the Women's Forum for the Economy and Society, an annual event where powerful women, and a few enlightened men meet to discuss the economy, and the future of women in industry, government, and philanthropy. In addition, and perhaps most importantly in our increasingly virtual world, it is a chance to network "face-to-face" with each other.

This event is supported by an "A-list" of sponsors including Accenture, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, Proctor & Gamble, Qualcomm, and Zinio.

There are numerous programs that take place over the course of the event, but I would like to share a few that I think will interest my viewers and members of my network in attendance:

Zinio and Qualcomm will have a presence there and have partnered together on a global “Change the Page” tour that coincides with the launch of a tremendous "revolution of digital reading" study performed by the Harrison Group. This study, titled "America’s Appetite for Digital Consumption", is a benchmark in the next wave of change ( http://www.changethepage.org/). Together, Zinio and Qualcomm are addressing the Reading Revolution and how the publishing and technology worlds are joining forces to address and evolve the way people read.

While this survey reveals that tablet based technologies and eReaders have widespread consumer appeal, this study reveals that “unlike other new technologies, this revolution is not about the technology itself, but rather, it is about the role that content plays in people’s lives.” Complete copies of the research can be purchased by contacting The Harrison Group.

Those of you who faithfully follow this blog may recall that I have written about Zinio in the past.

They provide a platform able to run on multiple devices, and a single solution to access a rapidly growing universe of content (including this Blog!). It's more than an application – they're a world-class digital products and services company that unites readers, what they read, and the many devices they read on. From design to distribution, their cross-platform suite of applications – UNITY™ – engages readers like never before on their iPads, iPhones, desktops, laptops and Android devices. For advertisers, they offer the chance to take advantage of a format that’s more engaging, with higher returns than any other digital platform.

In my opinion, Zinio delivers a new standard for digital publishing.

At the Women's Forum, Zinio and Qualcomm will be sponsoring the Writer’s Corner which takes place in the Discovery Hall. Within this area, Zinio and Qualcomm will show the evolution of reading from stone, to paper, to print to computer through a series of powerful imagery, ending with a sneak peak of the Mirasol Biomimicry Screen’s and Zinio interactive digital content.

A few interactive workshops that Zinio are participating in or conducting are listed below:

- Exclusive VIVmag focus study with Rising Talent group

Rising Talents aims to distinguish highly talented young women who will become influential figures in our economies and societies in the future. The initiative is an example of the values illustrated by the Women’s Forum since its creation. It was launched in 2007 under the impulse of Aude de Thuin, Founder and CEO, as a corporate and personal commitment to promoting women leaders and bringing the vision of rising generations to the Forum. Each year, 20 to 25 young women are invited to attend the Women’s Forum Global Meeting and join the Rising Talents network

This exclusive group will get to interact with VIVmag one-on-one on the iPad in order to generate key learnings from this savvy group on how women read interactive, dynamically designed digital magazines like VIVmag. The seven pillars of VIVmag will be showcased; beauty, style, healthy eating, fitness, travel, awareness and wellness and Rising Talent women will provide their feedback on the VIVmag experience – a luxury digital magazine

- Speaking Engagement by Qualcomm’s Cheryl Goodman, Director of Marketing, Qualcomm MEMS Technologies, Inc.

Information is fundamentally changing. A single animated movie now contains more data than entire libraries. There is one final frontier in this digital revolution, however, and it is perhaps the most important: print. No single moment in history has seen so much information move from one format to another with such significant implications. Print content now stands to enter new realms of use in arenas like education, social welfare, industry and entertainment. This is not only a technological revolution, but a revolution in intrinsic human reading behavior. The implications of this migration are empowering for those driving the revolution and daunting for those who lag on the adoption curve. In this session, participants will hear from women leading and enabling this reading revolution. Cheryl Goodman, hails from Qualcomm, a global leader in next generation wireless solutions and who’s mirasol display technology aims to preserve what makes print great. The compliment to Qualcomm’s hardware and wireless solutions are software platform solutions, is Zinio, the global leader in digital content distribution.

- The Future of Publishing

Cheryl Goodman and Pierre Geslot of ORANGE will address the Future of Publishing and Technology (I'll provide more info in a follow-up post later this week!)

As you can see, Change is happening in every aspect of our lives, and these programs describe the "cutting edge" of the technology that is helping drive it.

I will have another update on this event as the week progresses and some feedback from my viewers fortunate to experience this important women's event "live", so that you can experience all the energy and excitement "virtually".

Celebrities, Philanthropies & Charities - Women's Forum for The Economy & Society 2010

This week, the 6th edition of The Women's Global Forum Meeting will begin on October 14 and conclude on October 16. This year's theme is "Change - make it happen".

The Women’s Forum Meetings aim to bring together leaders from all over the world – women and men – representing the business world, the government, academic circles, culture, etc. in order to give new perspectives to key issues in our present and our future; to create a powerful, global network in order to strengthen the influence of women throughout the world; to draw up innovative and concrete action plans to encourage women’s contribution to society and promote diversity in the business world.

I am honored to have several of my network.attending this event, which is billed as the women's equivalent of the World Economic Forum which takes place annually at Davos, Switzerland.

Among them are Jeanniey Mullen and Jennifer Halliday of the Zinio organization. They are event partners along with their one-of-a-kind, all digital magazine for women - Vivmag. They are participating in several of the programs during the event, and I am hoping to bring you some of their insight as they progress.