Womennovator 2017: Celebrating Power of Influential Women in Business

The Confederation Of Women Entrepreneurs – India (COWE) organised “Womennovator 2017” in association with University of Chicago.

COWE, with this event aims to encourage, and motivate 80 women entrepreneurs across India. Incorporated in 2004, COWE has been functioning as a non-for profit organisation.

Formed by six enthusiastic women from different fields, with support of 16 other executive members, COWE today has 600 strong & influential women folks from all over India, and entrepreneurs from all walks of life.

They go by the slogan “Gearing women power” stands for the democratic structure of COWE and stands for “Of the women, for the women and by the women”.

Womennovator 2017
Their recent event held in Delhi, comprise of various panel discussions which will be welcomed by the organiser COWE India-Delhi Chairperson Tripti Somani; Aditi Mody Executive Director, Uchicago Center, Delhi; Manoj Mittal, Deputy MD, SIDBI; and Anurag Batra, Chairman and Editor in Chief, BW Businessworld.

There were three panel discussions on topics such as global startup ecosystem, mistakes that are fatal to an entrepreneur, and how successful women navigate. This will be followed by two speed dating sessions consisting of investors and mentors respectively.

What’s In For Entrepreneurs?
It has been understood that the growth of Indian economy can only be accelerated by replacing a roller with a pen and therefore this has been the focus of COWE from the day it was founded.

Therefore, participantion in Womennovator 2017, ensures an opportunity to connect with the investors such as Gagan Ghai, Crest Capital Advisors; Aayush Jain, Unicorn India Ventures; Swati Mehra, Sixth Sense Ventures; Aman Kumar, AdvantEdge Partners; Ridhika Saraf, Palaash ventures; Ashish Garg, LGT Impact Ventures; Amit Mishra, ID8 India Ventures and Sonali Thapar, Thapar Group.

There was also a session on speed dating with the mentors such as Jaya Goyal of WEC IamSMEIndia; Aditi Chadha of DAZL; Pooja Sareen of Inc42; Moitrayee Bhadra of I2a; Avani Parekh of Sheroes; Anuj Somani of KGS; Nehal Modi of Yellow Bulbs; Mukesh Malik of Entrepreneur in Residence ah! Ventures; Anshu Dewan of DS Group; Rangnath Krishna Chandra of NIESBUD; Vertica Dvivedi of WADe India and Dr. Shikha Suman of Medimojo.

In a period of six months COWE North (Delhi, Uttar Pradesh & Uttarakhand Chapters) has conducted more than five events which includes association with Various Ministries & Organizations such as NSIC, MSME, NEISBUD, few banks, Trash to Cash, Cuelearn etc.

Just like The Womennovator 2016, conducted in October last year, this year too the event was a success. The top three winners of the event were Ritu, CCO/Chief Connect Officer – JAMMs network; Dr. Deepali Bhardwaj , Hair and Skin Specialist and Kanika Gupta, Chocowah Indulgence.

A practical approach is thus being initiated through this event where more than 100 women entrepreneurs from around India attend and network.

The event had various panel discussions which were welcomed by the organizer and Chairperson COWE India-Delhi Ms. Tripti Somani; Ms. Aditi Mody Executive Director, Uchicago Center, Delhi; Mr. Manoj Mittal, Deputy MD, SIDBI and Mr. Anurag Batra, Chairman and Editor in Chief, BW Businessworld.

Further, the discussion then shifted to the panel which discussed upon the Startup Ecosystem which has been expanding around the Globe comprising of individuals Ms. Jyotsna Sitling of MSDE; Ms. Robyn Kessler of U.S. Embassy; Ms. Neeta Verma of National Informatics Centre, Mr. Utkarsh Amitabh, founder, Network Capital. The panel was moderated by Anubha Bhonsle of CNN- News18. The next panel discussed on the mistakes that were fatal to an entrepreneur by Dr. Blossom Kochhar, AromaMagic; Nikhil Arora of WeWork; Jatin Goel, The Vault Show; Deep Bajaj of Peebuddy; Sagar Daryani of Wow!Momo. The panel was moderated by Amit Mishra, ID8 Ventures.

Sonn after, the next panel highlighted on how successful women navigate where Kanika Tekriwal of JetSetGo; Supriya Paul of Josh Talks; Preeti Monga, Silver Linings; Archana Gupta of KEI Industries Ltd.; Syna Dehnugara, CNBC; Priyanka Suresh Raina, Social entrepreneurs shared their experiences and knowledge on the same.Deepak Goel of KarmaCircles moderated the panel.

The event was followed by Mentor and Investor session consisting of investors and mentors respectively which were unique in its way where the Entrepreneurs were able to meet and discuss their plans with them. They not only shared their real-time experience with them but guided them on how to excel.

Most importantly, entrepreneurs got the opportunity to speed date with the investors comprising Gagan Ghai of Crest Capital Advisors; Aayush Jain, Unicorn India Ventures; Swati Mehra of Sixth Sense Ventures; Aman Kumar of AdvantEdge Partners; Ridhika Saraf, Palaash ventures; Ashish Garg, LGT Impact Ventures; Amit Mishra, ID8 India Ventures and Sonali Thapar, Thapar Group, Karthik Chandrasekar and starlene Sharma from Sangam Ventures. The participants also got the opportunity to speed date with the mentors: Jaya Goyal of WEC IamSMEIndia; Aditi Chadha of DAZL; Pooja Sareen of Inc42; Moitrayee Bhadra of I2a; Avani Parekh of Sheroes; Anuj Somani of KGS; Nehal Modi of Yellow Bulbs; Mukesh Malik of Entrepreneur in Residence ah! Ventures; Anshu Dewan of DS Group; Rangnath Krishna Chandra of NIESBUD; Vertica Dvivedi of WADe India and Dr. Shikha Suman of Medimojo.

Abhilash Mishra of Uchicago Booth concluded the event with the vote of thanks. The event partners were, Sponsoring partners KEI, NSIC, and SIDBI; supporting partners YellowBulbs and Udaan Skill NGO; knowledge partner KGS, University of Chicago, Alumni Club of India Chicago Booth; hygiene partners PeeSafe; media partner BusinessWorld, Inc42, entrepreneur media and investment partner, VentureCatalysts.

Indian startup and entrepreneurial ecosystem needs to see much more warming events like these in the near future, if we really wish to encourage women in the workforce and make their dreams a reality. With the International Women's Day, round the corner BWDisrupt will bring to you a reality check of women in the workforce & success tales of women in business making an impact.