ARTDO conference to focus on women empowerment and leadership
Women in Sri Lanka form approximately 57 percent of a total estimated population of 21 million. However, out of the total economically active population of 8.5 million persons, only 33.4 percent are women. Thus, almost 70 percent of the labour force constitutes economically inactive women.
Taking into consideration these statistics, the organisers of the 46th ARTDO (Asian Regional Training and Development Organisation) has recognised the need to support women achieve their full potential and broaden their prospects of how to be contributing to the economy, society and family.
This special session will have a panel of famous ladies both from Sri Lanka, the USA, Japan and Malaysia. The three international speakers will be in Sri Lanka to address the main ARTDO conference, which will be held on September 24 and 25 and who have readily agreed to address the special session dedicated to women.
Koko Nakahara from Yokohama, Japan is an HRD consultant, who develops training and performance management solutions to leading Japanese and international companies. She develops and manages human resources and human capital. Koko will share the experiences of successful women of Japan, who climbed to the corporate ladder under difficult cultural obstacles.
In her talk, Dr. Tanvi Gautam, founder of Asia’s first global women and leadership programme, running for seven years, will talking about the trends and practices she is noticing in organisations. Based on her work in the US, India, Singapore and ASEAN, she will be discussing strategies that support the agenda, the trends and approach that organisations are taking and what can be done differently not just by organisations but also women themselves to shift the balance for a more equitable workplace.
Rita Goh, Director of learning and development of ITD World in Malaysia, has 30 years’ experience in the HR development and talent management field.
Rita will address this session on ‘nurturing the future generation’ whilst being a corporate leader. She will address the milestones in a woman’s career, having children, sacrifice corporate responsibility at the crucial time of development of children and make a return to the career.
The powerful local flavour of vibrant personalities who will speak at the women empowerment session will be: Lakmini Wijesundera, Cofounder and CEO of Iron One Technologies and Baoard PAC, who is also the ‘SAARC Woman Entrepreneur of the Year 2018’. As a woman entrepreneur who has built a successful Sri Lankan business in the IT sector with global clientele, her message will be sharing her story as an example and experiences in this journey of building a global business in Sri Lanka as a woman.
Lakmini will also address key areas such as increasing awareness and mindset of women and society, better access to childcare facilities, safe transport, etc for women to continue to stay in the workforce, entrepreneurship, start-up funding and education for starting and growing businesses.
Dilrukshi Wickramasinghe, Current Solicitor General and former Director General of Bribery and Corruption Commission, will discuss the challenges met and how to overcome them from a woman’s experience. She is an expert on anti-corruption law who has a passion for anti-corruption work, prevention and creating awareness on anti-corruption.
Dr. Sulochana Segera, founder of Women in Management, is dedicated to uniting Sri Lankan career and women to reach their full potential, breaking through the glass ceiling, to overcome barriers, how to empower women to forge ahead amidst the challenges.
The moderator will be John Philips of KESAB, Australia.
The target audience for this conference is career women in corporate and government institutions, women in business, young women who are starting up careers or businesses and especially mothers who have taken time off careers and want to make a comeback.
This special session will be held today from 3:00 to 6:00 p.m., at The Hilton Colombo, Main Ballroom. Tickets are priced at Rs.4,500 and limited tickets are available.
The main conference, which will be held on September 24 and 25, will focus on several areas including: governance for transition – changing the culture in governance, tools for digital transformation, developing a future workforce with Gen Z and millenials, sales transformation – reinventing yourself for future challenges, talent assessment through AI, alternative dispute resolution – tailor made for legal practitioners and corporate lawyers, emotional excellence – heart of a corporate leader, sustainability practices of the environment, applied emotional well-being.
Social enterprising using STEM CELL technology is a special session, which will be greater than Wi-fi creation. A live demonstration will take place at this session with Hi tech specialists in Australia, who will introduce the creation of apps within 10 to 15 minutes, which could even be done by youngsters aged 12 and above and re-exported to other parts of the world.
The main conference will be held on September 24 and 25, at the Main Ballroom, The Hilton Colombo. The rate for the full event is Rs.30,000 per person and discounts are available on group registrations and special rates are available for government Institutions.
The organisers’ key objective is that Sri Lanka needs to change its course of direction to reach greater heights economically and socially, the mindset and attitude of the workforce need to be directed to keeping abreast of the global changes. Learning will only help one improve personally, which will then reflect in his/ her transformation in attitude, creativity and productivity, which will then impact economically and socially.
The organisers hope that Sri Lankan corporates, government institutions, non-governmental organisations, private companies and Individuals will seize this opportunity and reap the benefits of this powerpacked conference.
More details could be derived from www.artdo46.info, email: artdo46@gmail.com or 0767318211.