WINS 2012 mission is to increase the amount of women’s innovation in order to develop a sustainable economy.
Why? Because when more women are actively innovating, it will improve the quality of life in our organizations and create more sustainability in the economy and on the planet.
How? By organizing a summit we will explore the challenges and solutions for women to innovate. It will raise awareness about women who innovate and how they innovate.
For example:
- How do we foster knowledge, skill and confidence for women to take their ideas to innovation? (offer an innovation path)
- How do we recognize and create more awareness about women who innovate? (offer role models)
- How do we make it easier and more accessible for women to innovate? (access to funding and resources)
- How can we make women’s innovations profitable both in for and not for profit environments? (define success)
Attendees of the summit can:
- Choose to develop their personal “innovation quotient”
- Participate in collaborative efforts to solve innovation challenges
- Enjoy the new perspectives and connections
- Understand how women innovating for sustainability can lead to more jobs and more happiness
- Gain ideas and insights that will help innovation in their own careers or their role as an entrepreneur
- Understand their power as an economic force
- Become inspired
- Join the movement
WINS will be an incredible launchpad.
We want to see more women innovate! Innovate for sustainability.
Sustainability in our workplaces, environment and economy. The purpose of the summit is to show that there are women who are doing this, who are leading these efforts and how they are doing it, what are the technological or scientific solutions they have invented and how they drive for changing the systems to serve people in more equitable and fairer ways.
We are talking about sustainability in terms of respect and wellbeing:
- Organizationally in workplaces we strive for cultures that espouse respect for people, and founded in leadership that sustains the human spirit.
- Ecologically we aim at preserving and treating our environment to create healthy ways of living for us and the future generations.
- Economically we want to create equitable opportunities that are not based on creed but exchanges of value that recognizes the true cost of our exchanges
How do we get women engaged, involved in actively operating with the mindset of “sustainability” in all of these levels?
We believe it should be easy. Women are naturally focused on life-sustaining, life-enhancing values of being in the world, accomplishing things in nurturing ways, they consider the impact on relationships and others around them.
Sustainability is not just maintaining and preserving but innovating for brand new, improved ways that make sustaining easier, effortless and fun.
Who can take charge of this, be the leaders of this? Who can set the example, become the heroines of innovative sustainability? What if women did?
Women can be the leaders of this change, because of their level of education, awareness, and control of household spending. Women are powerful because:
- Women are attaining more master’s degrees than men (58% of undergrads), and they dominate the education system; 76% of US women are in the workforce and they are representing 51% of the workforce.
- Women are especially aware of the health and environmental aspects during their parenting years.
- Women are the biggest economic force of the global market place; as 85 cents of the dollar is spent by women in the US, and globally women control 65% of spending.
Women around the globe have more control over their life choices and path than ever before. In emerging markets, women are entering the workforce at lightning speed. With access to more choices, they are delaying marriage to increase their educational and career opportunities.
All of that said, isn’t it curious that women are not seen as active participants in the innovation economy? Or that they are hindered from taking their ideas to innovation?
If women embraced the true force they are – what would be possible? What if women were inventing and designing new technologies and driving change as a norm? The economic force of women could accelerate the reinvention of the economy.
I define innovation as “a great idea put into practical use, scaled and sustained”. The purpose of WINS 2012 is to facilitate more insights about how women’s minds produce great practical ideas that can be developed to fruition, scaled and sustained. How do help women own their innovativeness and gain confidence and skills in collaborating in ways that eventually change the world?
At WINS we want to shift women’s attention to the possibility of innovating. We will raise awareness about women who innovate and how they innovate. With information we have more choice. Becoming educated about the consequences of our choices can change behavior. Even shopping behavior. Even recycling behavior. Even the ways we behave at work and in collaborative projects.
According to McKinsey report on Women and Economy “More than men, women prize the opportunity to pour their energies into making a difference and working closely with colleagues.”
WINS provides that opportunity.
WINS 2012 is a conversation starter – and it also ignites action. At the end of the day, the attendees will walk out with an understanding that they can choose to develop their personal “innovation quotient”, participate in collaborative efforts, join the movement or just enjoy the new perspectives and connections.
At best, WINS will show that the benefits of women innovating for sustainability can lead to more jobs and more happiness. Sustainable economy is a happiness economy!
WINS 2012 will be attractive to women who dare to make a difference and men who care about that difference!
WINS founder Kristiina Hiukka is a Certified Professional Co-Active Coach, trained and experienced at helping executives, teams, and organizations succeed. She is passionate about and skilled at building sustainable high performance teams and individuals. She is the founder and Chief Coaching Officer of Big Agenda Coaching.