The Women's International Networking Conference (WINConference) is a women's networking conference.[1] It runs annually in capital cities in Europe.[2] The focus of the conference has been women, female empowerment and leadership.[3] The Guardian has described it as a part of a trend they named "Sisterhood 2.0."[4] It is one of the largest conferences of its kind, according to Financial Express.[5]
The Women's International Networking Conference was founded in 1997 by Norwegian social entrepreneur Kristin Engvig.[6] Together with a group of corporate women and expatriates she invented the WINConference which was held at Palazzo delle Stelline, IBM Center in Milan in 1998.[7] The conference is attended by business people, politicians, NGO representatives and others.[5] WINConference prepares their attendants for the future through a feminine lens, conducting research on women in management and business and the way they balance work and life.[8] Its vision expands the new paradigm of leading authentically, by integrating feminine values and global interconnectedness and the conference brings influential change-makers and pioneers together to create a more balanced world that works for all.[9]
Since 2009, the global conference is run annually, with around 500 attendees from all over the world.[10] WINConference holds global and local conferences, such as the Middle East (Dubai), Japan WIN Conference[11] and WINConference Nigeria.[12] In 2013, the India Conference was held for the first time.[13] Through thought leadership, advocacy, vision & innovative work on diversity, inclusion, authentic, feminine/balanced, and global conscious leadership WIN Conference touched 22 000 women leaders worldwide as well as an increasing number of men). As of 2016, the global conference has gathered more than 13 000 participants of 129 different nationalities.[14]