R10 WIE Support Funded Program 2016 “Creativity, Innovation to Women Entrepreneurship” Organized by

Organizer: WIE Affinity Group, IEEE Bangladesh Section

Venue: ECE Building, BUET

Date: October 28, 2016

The R10 WIE support funded program ‘Creativity, Innovation to Women Entrepreneurship’ was held at Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET), Dhaka, Bangladesh on October 28, 2016. The program was designed with different sessions like professional talk followed by Q/A, training session by Planeter Ltd, idea generation session and industrial visit to BUET power plant. The program was organized by WIE Affinity group of IEEE Bangladesh Section. 50 participants comprising of students and professionals from different organizations attended the event.

The program started with a professional talk delivered by Sonia Bashir Kabir, Managing Director, Microsoft Bangladesh Ltd. She shared her life experiences and the challenges she faced in her working field including the gender difficulties. She is a woman driven by passion and interest. Her life story motivated the young minds. She also shared her entrepreneurship journey. Later on WIE Chair, Samantha Lubaba Noor presented Miss Kabir with a token of appreciation for making out time from her busy schedule.

Figure 1: Moments with the speaker Sonia Bashir Kabir

Figure 2: Speaker Khusboo receiving token of appreciation on the left and during her session on the right.

A training session was then held by Rini Ehsan Khusboo, CEO, Planeter Limited on entrepreneurship. She led the session by discussing how she created a place for her in growth enterprises and managed finances. She also talked about some of her marketing strategies, financial strategy and the difficulties she faced when people didn’t want to rely on a local start up. She mentioned about the job opportunities of women in her company. It was a very interactive session. And there was a long Q/A session which to satisfy the query of young minds. Later on Khusboo was presented with a token of appreciation by the Treasurer of WIE executive committee, Anamika Bhakta for conducting the session.

Figure 3: Two groups presenting their ideas on the left and on the right participants during power plant visit.

An interesting “Idea generation” session was held for the participants where the participants were divided into groups of five. After being inspired from the speakers and her stories, this was the opportunity for the participants to come up with innovative ideas for a start up. It was a group activity where professionals from different organizations and students came under one roof and formed teams with each other and presented their ideas in front of the judge, Rini Ehsan Khusboo. The two best teams were awarded with prizes.

The participants were later taken to the BUET power plant for an industrial visit. A session was held there explaining the basics of a power system.