The 7th Edition of “Women Power Summit & Awards 2022 concludes with a “GRANDER APPROBATION”

The 7th edition of Women Power Summit & Awards 2022 (#WPSA2022) organized by Billennium Divas, a daylong mega conference celebrated the spirit of Women Entrepreneurship like every year for Women Entrepreneurs / Startups, wannapreneurs on the 07th May 2022 in association with BSE, supported by SSIP i-Hub (Government of Gujarat) & BSE IPF, powered by Aditya Birla Sun Life AMC Ltd, Sepalika as Wellness Partner and Vertices as Knowledge Partner concluded with a thunderous applause and was once again a humongous success. The event was attended by the “Who’s – Who” of the Women Entrepreneurs / Thought Leaders, Industry stalwarts & the Startups fraternity. More than 200+ Women Entrepreneurs / Founders along with their Women / Men Co-Founders participated in the 7th Annual Women Power Summit & Awards 2022 from across verticals across the country. It acted as an impactful platform to celebrate excellence in various fields by women entrepreneurs and start-up ecosystem enablers who have made a significant mark thereby recognizing their contribution to the entrepreneurship ecosystem through 45+ different awards categories. The Awards were distinctly curated in honour of exemplary contribution and in an effort in celebrating and “Recognizing Business Excellence” thereby setting a benchmark through a stringent selection process by an elite jury committee thus ensuring complete transparency and fairplay. The theme for this year’s summit was: ‘Women with Ideas for the Next Decade!’ The daylong event was chaired by the esteemed Chief Guest, Dr. Abhay Jere, Chief Innovation Officer- Ministry of Education, Government of India, along with the Guest of Honour, Smt. Shweta Shalini, Executive Director – MVSTF, Chief Evangelist – Billennium Divas, Advisor to Ex-CM, Shri. Devendra Fadnavis and Shri. Ajay Thakur, Head SME’s & Startups – BSE, Mr. K S Rao, Sr. VP & Head-Investor Education & Distribution Development-Aditya Birla Sunlife AMC Ltd, sharing their expertise and insights on Innovation, though leadership, Startup exchange, funding and finance strategies, business growth and various areas in overcoming challenges faced by Women Entrepreneurs & Start-up’s.The theme for the 7th Annual Women Power Summit & Awards 2022 was “Women with Ideas for the Next Decade!” Keeping in line with the theme, the daylong event deliberated on key topics as ♦ Fireside chat: Accelerating focus on driving Innovation for business growth!.♦ Driving business growth through robust financial strategies♦ Financial Quotient For Her.♦ How a Woman can take charge of her health – Learn how hormones are everything.♦ Unveiling of the Book Volume II – EVES AGAINST THE ODDS: 25 Inspiring Women Entrepreneurs Stories.♦ The launch of Billennium Divas merchandise range called “I am a Diva”! Coming soon in Stores!! The 7th Annual Women Power Summit & Awards 2022 helped bring women leaders together to connect and be heard, to support and inspire each other to be impactful leaders and to propel their businesses forward in these testing times. The event started with the national anthem and the lighting of the lamp by the guest dignitaries present followed by a power-packed welcome address by our esteemed Dr. Abhay Jere, Chief Innovation Officer – Ministry of Education, Government of India where he deliberated on how today India has positioned itself to be an Innovation Hub on the global map. He also spoke about key role sustainable enterprises play in building a culture of innovation in a progressive country and around 60% of sustainable ideas came from Women Entrepreneurs. Dr. Jere in his closing remarks congratulated the entire team of Billennium Divas for putting together a fabulous platform and for taking Women Power Summit & Awards in its 7th Year this year. He also lauded the initiative of bringing out the ‘Volume II’ of the Book on Women Entrepreneurs thereby extending his wholehearted support to initiatives such as these in bringing women to the forefront. This was followed by another special address by the Guest of Honour, Shri. Ajay Thakur, Head SME’s & Startups – BSE where he spoke about how BSE has been able to build humongous value of 3.8 trillion dollars approximately through several initiatives in supporting Corporates, SME’s and Startups in the country. BSE SME platform recently celebrated its 10th year with a whopping 370+ sme’s listed on the platform till date. The various initiatives at BSE to support SME’s and Startups for easy access to capital through smooth process of listing for the companies on the BSE Platform ensuring all the regulations and compliances are also met. Shri. Ajay Thakur also emphasized on a significant focus on providing support to Women Entrepreneurs and that’s where BSE and Billennium Divas together will play a pivotal role in this space in the coming years and also congratulated the organizers of the 7th Annual Women Power Summit & Awards 2022 for hosting it for 2nd consecutive year with the strong support of BSE.The next special address was by Smt. Shweta Shalini, Executive Director – MVSTF, Chief Evangelist – Billennium Divas where she spoke on how women provide a very strong support from the back end as well as the front end. She also presented several statistics on how women are leading from the front in and are fighting innumerable battles and scaling newer heights. She also highlighted how Billennium Divas has been build as a platform of sisterhood and providing an opportunity of networking and growing their businesses through several initiatives such as an online global community platform, through multiple volumes of the book covering women entrepreneur stories, merchandising ideas and innovative products, an angel network called Billennium Divas Angel Network (BDAN) to name a few. Billennium Divas thus has proven itself as a unique global platform which is committed for bringing women to the forefront in the country and supports the empowered women of today. The event proceeded further with a very interactive Fireside Chat session on a very imperative and an interesting topic “Accelerating focus on driving Innovation for business growth!” between the two dynamic dignitaries and special guests, Dr. Abhay Jere, Chief Innovation Officer – Ministry of Education, Government of India and Ms. Shweta Shalini, Chief Evangelist – Billennium Divas, Senior Leader, Executive Director-MVSTF. Dr. Jere spoke highlighted some key aspects of his role as a Chief Innovation Officer, MoE’s Innovation Cell, GoI and how government is driving the culture of innovation at school levels including the curriculums itself and inculcating a thought process, a habit and a cultural shift on innovating thinking at a very young age within the students through leading the largest hackathon in the country. This has brought a huge shift in the way students have adopted innovation and a problem solving approach within their regular learning’s at the school level across the country. The audience was simply mesmerised and there was a thundering applause spread across the entire auditorium. Two more significant announcements were made during the 7th Annual Women Power Summit & Awards 2022 event, firstly, unveiling of the book VOLUME II – EVES AGAINST THE ODDS: 25 Inspiring Women Entrepreneurs Stories supported by BSE IPF, MentorMyBoard & Prabhudas Lilladher and curated by Mr. Hariharan Iyer and Mr. Bhavesh Kothari. The unveiling was done by our esteemed dignitaries and guests such as Dr. Abhay Jere, Chief Innovation Officer – Ministry of Education, Government of India, Smt. Shweta Shalini, Executive Director – MVSTF, Advisor to Ex-CM, Shri. Devendra Fadnavis, Shri. Ajay Thakur, Head SME’s & Startups – BSE, Mr. K S Rao, Sr. VP & Head Investor Education & Distribution Development – Aditya Birla Sun Life AMC Ltd, Ms. Minal Kothari, Co-Founder & Director – Billennium Divas Private Limited and the Co-Author Mr. Bhavesh Kothari, Co-Founder & Director – Billennium Divas Private Limited. #WPSA2022 also saw the launch of another book by the dynamic Rtn. Alpa Shah titled ‘The Business Woman’ at the summit duly supported by Billennium Divas. Here is the link to the photographs of the Scintillating moments captured of the Volume II of Eves Against the Odds, book launch during the recently concluded 7th Annual Women Power Summit & Awards 2022” on this 07th day of May 2022, Saturday, at the ‘BSE International Convention Hall’, Mumbai- https://bit.ly/3AL9NzP / https://tinyurl.com/42e2mwsz. The second announcement was the launch of Billennium Divas merchandise range called “I am a Diva”!The Merchandises is available online for you to order with customization and design of your choice. Another highlight was the PitchPower: Pitch session by top 5 curated Women led / Co-Founded start- ups to an elite set of Investor Panel for their fundraise. Post this followed a scintillating Panel Discussion on the topic: Panel Discussion: Driving business growth through robust financial strategies, with eminent panellist such as Mr. Ajay Thakur, Head – SME & Startups – BSE. Mr. K S Rao, Sr. VP & Head-Investor Education & Distribution Development-Aditya Birla Sunlife AMC Ltd. Mr. Rajesh Sehgal, Founder & Managing Partner – Equanimity Investments. Ms. Neha Shah, Co-Founder – Qween Network LLP moderated by Rtn. Alpa Shah, Social Entrepreneur, Author & Finance Expert, where the panel deliberated on how do you build and grow your business on a robust financial strategies with the help of tools and technology to withstand adversities in the VUCA world. One Key takeaway – “Idea is no one’s monopoly, what matters is how can you monetize the idea!” This was in turn followed by another fantastic session by Mr. K S Rao, Sr. VP & Head Investor Education & Distribution Development, Aditya Birla Sun Life AMC Ltd on a very pertinent topic called Financial Quotient For Her. Mr. Rao raised pertinent questions such as: If women are bestowers of wealth world over, why should you rely on men for managing your own finances?, He also emphasised on how women are better at multitasking than their men counterparts, highlighting the qualities of women bearing superior qualities such as Ability to multitask, higher Emotional Intelligence, Adaptability, Relationship building capabilities, Humility and perseverance among other qualities as well. Mr. K S Rao also highlighted some incorrect generalizations about Women and money management. The next impactful session was on “How a Woman can take charge of her health – Learn how hormones are everything!” by a very dynamic women entrepreneur, Ms. Sharda Agarwal, Co-Founder – Sepalika Health. Ms. Agarwal highlighted on how Sepalika, an online clinic that helps women return to vibrant health via proper nutrition, dietary, supplements, acupressure and lifestyle. She also spoke about some very useful tips on Diet & Lifestyle principles to follow at home to have a much healthy routine and maintain a balanced yet nutritious diet. The Post lunch session was a power packed panel discussion aptly titled; Women In Business | Perspectives & Perceptions with eminent women entrepreneur panellist such as Ms. Archana Khosla Burman, Founder Partner-Vertices Partners. Sr. Vice Chairperson, FICCI FLO Mumbai, Ms. Kiran Manral, Partner – Altius Capital Management, Dr. Saagarika Ghoshal, Managing Director – Match Board, Ms. Pooja Parmar, Senior Associate – Equanimity Investments and moderated by Ms. Kimaya Hemdev, Co-Founder – The Pink Thread. The panel deliberated on how the world perceives today’s women entrepreneurs and though leaders, the need for women to rise up to board levels and have equal spaces thereby fostering good governance within the organization leading to growth and progress. Coming up next on the agenda was a scintillating Fireside Chat on: Startup ecosystem perspective with Mr. Vinayak Burman, Managing Partner – Vertices Partners and driven by Mr. Bhavesh Kothari, Director – Billennium Divas Pvt. Ltd, Co-Author – Eves Against The Odds!, where they deliberated on What is the biggest dilemma that a founder faces once she / he receives a term sheet? Another area that was touched upon was to outline few important aspects that a founder should always keep in mind as fundamental elements for negotiation to ensure a balances approach? Mr. Vinayak Burman also spoke about 3 most important learning’s in his journey as an entrepreneur, angle investor and a counsel to most key founders in the country. Mr. Bhavesh Kothari highlighted a very pertinent point of why entrepreneurs must always focus on value creating against valuation. This truly was a fire chat in its true sense with the audience giving a big thundering applause. The next up on the agenda was the main highlight of the day, the much awaited and talk about moment of the event, the 7th Annual Women Power Summit & Awards 2022, a highly process driven awards by Billennium Divas with an aims at “Recognizing Business Excellence” via dedicated 35 Award Categories for Women Entrepreneurs / Women Founded / Co-Founded Startups & 10 Award Categories for ecosystem players. A total of more than 85+ women entrepreneurs and Ecosystem Enablers were felicitated at the much glam awards ceremony which created another major milestone in the history of Billennium Divas. All the applicants / nominees had to undergo a very stringent selection process to qualify for the top 5 places in each category and then join the stage on the d-day as winners and runner-ups in each category thus making it a ‘Recognition Well Deserved’ for all of these women entrepreneurs. This year 5 more categories were added as per public demand from last year’s awards. Here is the link to the photographs of the scintillating moments captured at the “7th Annual Women Power Summit & Awards 2022” on this 07th day of May 2022, Saturday, in association with BSE, at the BSE International Convention Hall, Mumbai organized by Billennium Divas – https://bit.ly/3AL9NzP/ https://tinyurl.com/42e2mwsz. 7th Annual Women Power Summit & Awards 2022 boasted of marquee names and illustrious industry thought leaders as esteemed Jury Committee members and industry captains such as Smt. Shweta Shalini, Executive Director – MVSTF, Chief Evangelist – Billennium Divas, Advisor to Ex-CM, Shri. Devendra Fadnavis, Shri. Ajay Thakur, Head SME’s & Startups – BSE, Dr. Saagarika Ghoshal, Managing Director – Match Board, Ms. Nabomita Mazumdar, Founder – Nabomita.com and 100 Women achievers awardee, Rtn. Alpa Shah, Entrepreneur, Author & Finance Expert, Mr. Mahavir Pratap Sharma, Chair – TiE India Angels, Chairman & Co-Founder – Rajasthan Angels (RAIN), Mr. Anas Rahman Junaid Founder & Managing Director – Hurun India, Ms. Tehmina Khandwala, Chairperson – FICCI FLO Mumbai Chapter, Dr. Nidhika Bahl, Entrepreneur, Author, Life & Success Coach, Integrative Nutritionist & Holistic Healer spearheading the awards curation and selection process to ensure fairplay and transparency for this seasons Awards like every year. This exclusive invitation-only event brought together the most sought-after women leaders, women entrepreneurs, startup investors, media, enterprise partners, startup ecosystem players and mentors to support female founders through participatory presentations, Panel discussions, and more. Engage with more than 100+ savvy Women Entrepreneurs / Leaders with diverse backgrounds, passions, and pursuits for a day of candid conversations, provocative thinking, innovative business ideas, and workable solutions to your business growth challenges.The 7th Annual Women Power Summit & Awards 2022 garnered tremendous support from high profile institutions and organizations as “Partners” such as BSE, Aditya Birla Sun Life AMC Ltd, BSE Investors Protection Fund, SSIP i-Hub (Govt of Gujarat), Sepalika Health, Vertices Partners, ECube, Equanimity Ventures, JITO Angel Network, Fluid Ventures, Sublime Life, Lyvefresh, Alders Den, Wild Earth, Submarine ReDesyn, TiE Women, FICCI FLO Mumbai, CrayWingz, SyndiCap Venture Partners, Community Managers Forum, TEOI, SME WORLD Magazine, Easy Leadz, Free Press Journal, Trade Fair Times, and many more to make this event a benchmark in recognizing and felicitating the empowered women entrepreneurs across the country and to celebrate Women entrepreneurship in style and grace. The event has been creating a major buzz and getting lots of appreciation for the quality of content and the impact on various social media channels such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTube and Twitter. Facebook link – https://www.facebook.com/billenniumdivas and the event Website link – 7th Annual Women Power Summit & Awards 2022 For more information for this event, kindly visit https://register.billenniumdivas.fund or contact the organizers on [email protected] / Mr. Bhavesh Kothari (Director) +919820436076 We look forward to seeing you for the 8th Edition of the Women Power Summit & Awards next year!