Earlier in January, IPWS & TEDxShanghaiWomen organised a ‘Q&A’ event with all the speakers from last year’s TEDx event!

With Mary Rezek as moderator, our community was able to hear from all the speakers (Gwen Cardno, Rina Joosten-Rabou, May Wang and Valerie Brown) and had the opportunity to talk and ask questions!

Here’s a review of the event by IPWS volunteer, Jenny Northey! Thanks so much for recapping the event for us!

TEDxShanghaiWomen 2016 Talk Back

Thursday, January 12, 2017

A large and dynamic crowd gathered at the WeWork Weihai location on the evening January 12 to listen to the experiences of four speakers who spoke at the TEDxShanghaiWomen conference in October 2016. The panel, consisting of Gwen Cardno, Rina Joosten-Rabou, May Wang and Valerie Brown, and moderated by Mary Rezek, in turn described their experiences and emotions preparing for and at the conference, as well as answering questions in the Q&A at the end.

All the speakers reflected on their strenuous work for months in fine-tuning their TEDxShanghaiWomen speeches, a process that was time-consuming but completely worthwhile. Joosten-Rabou explained that doing this “most scary thing in her life” has strengthened her positivity outlook and enabled her to apply her learning to her work and with her children.  Brown compared it to childbirth – “if someone had told me how painful or how long it would take…I wouldn’t have done it”, but that doing it gave life to her.

One theme that Rezek brought out was that of vulnerability. The speakers acknowledged that this was not easy, especially when speaking on topics so personal to them. Cardno described how she learned to speak from the heart with her own words. Wang reflected on how she was challenged to go deeper in her heart to find the real reason for doing her speech. However, this preparation process and soul-searching enabled them to truly connect with the audience.

When it came to the question of being a woman in their industry, all emphasized the need to do one’s best work and to “move the ball forward” for women, choosing to have a positive outlook and to take a leap of faith in the face of fear and uncertainty.

Organised by:

And we’d like to thank all the following partners for making this event happen!