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THE seventh annual Dell Women s Entrepreneur Network Summit, an exclusive invitation-only conference for female entrepreneurs globally, will convene from June 27 to 28 in Cape Town.

The summit will bring together more than 150 top entrepreneurs, business leaders, media and partners around the theme of innovating for a future-ready world

Innovation is crucial for staying competitive in a changing world. It allows once intractable problems to be tackled with creative, sustainable solutions that save lives, enable human potential and bring hope to millions.

Advances in technology allow entrepreneurs to innovate and share at an unprecedented scale, all over the globe. Entrepreneurs tap into these opportunities, grow businesses, create jobs and develop sustainable, scalable solutions.

Dell calls this future ready and aims to help future entrepreneurs create lasting value and impact in their countries and the world.

The role that women play in driving the global economy is becoming more foundational to the health and wellbeing of our world,” said Karen Quintos, chief marketing officer at Dell.

The conference has been hosted in Shanghai, Rio de Janeiro, New Delhi, Istanbul, Austin and Berlin. Why South Africa? With the world s youngest and fastest-growing population, Africa has become known as the world s largest source of untapped talent.

With half of its 1-billion population less than 21 years old, Africa has the youngest population in the world.

Based upon Global Women Entrepreneur Leaders Scorecard, South Africa and the US proved the only two countries out of the 31 examined that actively promote growth-oriented female entrepreneurs through gender public procurement policies.

Africa leads the world in the number of women starting businesses, with almost equal levels of male and female entrepreneurs. In countries like Ghana, Nigeria and Zambia, women entrepreneurs are the majority.

The continent is home to one of the world s fastest-growing economies and holds promise as an incubator of the next generation of tech talent. South Africa has set the stage for international success stories.