Growing Globally

Few women have contributed more to the global exchange of ideas among women entrepreneurs than Irene Natividad. From her Washington, D.C. office, Natividad has served as the director of the Global Summit of Women for the past 14 years. The Summit reaches across borders, across disciplines, and across cultures to allow women to learn from each other in their ongoing work towards economic equity. Enterprising Women asked Natividad to discuss the most recent Summit in Marrekech, Morocco, and her plans for the upcoming Summit in Seoul, Korea.

Enterprising Women: What motivated you to organize the Global Summit of Women?

Natividad: When you look at the major international meetings of the world - the multilateral bank meetings (like the World Bank and others) - even non-profits like the World Economic Forum, you will find very few women because so few have achieved the leadership positions which spell immediate invitations to such meetings-ministerial posts, heads of state or corporate CEOs.

Rather than wait to be invited, the Global Summit of

Women was created for all women leaders to meet across borders, across disciplines, and across class lines in order to be able to conduct exchanges and to share ideas without being hampered by their country's official positions. So when you go to the Summit, some alchemy takes place that enables a woman minister to sit next to an NGO leader or an entrepreneur to share best practices and get energized by each other.

The Summit is about solutions - not about problems - to the issues that women have created to address the problems that face them. It is about leadership, not victimhood, whether it is at the micro-enterprise level or at the national level. It is about bringing other women up the ladder so that they don't have to start from zero. If a woman comes out of the Summit with a major idea, a major contact or with renewed spirit to begin anew, then I feel it's worth the effort.

Some of the best moments for me that makes me continue year after year is when I watch the women at the closing reception dancing to the music of another country, as Indian women did to Moroccan music, or Icelandic women to South African rhythms, or Japanese women to Spanish songs. That's a message of unity that is so needed now when the world seems so torn up by national and regional conflict. I cling to the belief that women are the conduit to peace because it is they who will reach out to others.

EW: Where were the past Summits held?

Natividad: The Summits began bi-annually, then became annual events. The cities that have hosted this forum are Montreal, Canada; Dublin, Ireland; Taipei, Taiwan; Miami, Florida; London, U.K.; Buenos Aires, Argentina; Johannesburg, South Africa; Hongkong, S.A.R.; Barcelona, Spain; and Marrakesh, Morocco. The next host is Seoul, Korea, followed by Mexico City, Mexico. We try to rotate the continents so as to enable women from a region to access the Summit more easily. The Summit is organized from the United States, but I bring the Summit to different regions, rather than insisting that they come to the United States.

EW: How has the Summit grown through the years?

Natividad: When we first began, we mailed thousands of brochures and we would fret about how the mail would get to developing countries with unreliable post offices. Well, now we mail very few brochures. Instead, almost all registrations come through the Internet from every part of the world. What amazes me is the traffic the Summit Web site gets - over 2.5 million already - from every country imaginable without us advertising to solicit visitors. It really is a testament to women's efforts to learn more, to explore, and to use technology to get beyond their borders.

While the Summit may have averaged about 400 participants in the past, the last Summit brought almost 700 women to Morocco from 80 countries - the most in our 14-year history - and at a time when the rest of the world was jittery about traveling to that region. I was so proud of the women who came despite their fears and with the intent to go ahead with their plans no matter what.

Within the last few years, the Summit has made a major shift to focus primarily on strategies that move women's economic status forward. It is a move that I foster because I believe that women's economic clout can lead them to other kinds of power in other arenas.

EW: Why did you select South Korea for the next Summit and what do you hope will come out of this Summit?

Natividad: I love bringing women to countries about which they have such little knowledge and blow their minds away with new perceptions and information that expand their horizons. Korea is not only a technology giant, but it is a gateway to the two major engines of the Asia Pacific market - Japan and China. I'd like the delegates who come to investigate these markets, which comprise two-thirds of the world! Most important, I want them to get to know this region better through the women that they meet there.

While Korea has four women ministers and several women engaged in large enterprises, there's still a long way to go in terms of women's equal status in every aspect of public life. Our Korea Host Committee hopes that the Summit will draw attention to the need to address women's issues there, and to draw the attention of the business community and government to their roles in this process.

EW: You have been very successful at past Summits in drawing high-level government representatives to the event. What role do those government leaders play at the Summit?

Natividad: From the outset, we've been able to attract key women government leaders from heads of state to women ministers of varying portfolio. Even as the Summit has moved to a primarily economic thrust, I have tried hard to engage women government leaders, as they are in a position to create change for thousands of women through one piece of legislation. These women may be role models to women in their countries, but they, too, need to be exposed to ideas from other countries that they may be able to adopt.

We had the first Women's Ministerial Roundtable at the last Summit in Morocco and it was attended by 43 women ministers from several different countries. Their report to the Summit delegates indicated that they learned new strategies from each other - gender indexing of every piece of legislation that is put to them for a vote in Parliament, an idea shared by the Deputy Prime Minister of Ireland; an innovative approach to micro-finance introduced by the Mozambique Minister of Finance and Planning; and many others.

EW: You held the first Arab Women's Colloquium at the 2003 Summit in Morocco. What was the outcome of that meeting?

Natividad: The 2003 Summit was the first one to be held in an Arab state, and I was determined that it would have a forum especially for Arab women to discuss economic empowerment among themselves and exchange ideas on what has worked in their respective countries. I was so pleased to have had over 250 women who came from so many Arab states, many of whom sent official delegations.

What I loved most was showcasing Arab women experts throughout the Summit to dispel people's ideas about their capabilities. For instance, I had a session on "Business Opportunities in the Region" and one of the presenters was an Egyptian woman who serves on the Cairo Stock Exchange and runs her own consulting business.

On a panel on leadership, one of the participants was a Jordanian woman who owns the largest chocolate producing company in the Middle East. From Morocco, three women ministers and the Senior Advisor to the King (a woman) impressed the delegates with their savvy and know-how. Conflict happens through ignorance of each other, and I hope that this Summit and all that preceded it contribute towards the global understanding that is so needed.

EW: Why should U.S. women entrepreneurs expand their businesses into the global marketplace?

Natividad: Because of the simple fact that those small businesses that engage in trade across borders grow six times faster than those that focus primarily on domestic markets.

EW: Why should U.S. women entrepreneurs attend the next Global Summit of Women?

Natividad: They will have the opportunity to explore the sizable Korean market, let alone the Asia Pacific region, through the contacts they make there; they can showcase their products or services at the Women's Expo; they can forge new alliances and expand their global network; they can find new business partners or get a new idea - or learn a new skill - or simply expand their economic literacy.

Above all, they will get energized through the sheer exposure to the dynamic women leaders who come there from every corner of the world. There is no way to quantify a renewed energy and enthusiasm that emerges from such a gathering.