On May 31st, IPWS hosted the fourth annual IPWS Summit at Kathleen’s Waitan in Shanghai. Every year, this event pushes the boundaries of traditional conferencing, fusing powerful speakers with innovative, active conferencing.
The Summit is also where we announce and celebrate the winners of the annual Women Leadership Awards (WLA), one of the longest running international awards for women leaders in China.
The Courage to Lead
It’s a crazy idea
It’s disrupting the status quo
It’s being true to yourself
It’s never letting yourself say ‘why me?’
It’s resilience
It’s growth
It’s different for each person
During our fourth IPWS Summit we set out to explore The Courage to Lead through six speakers and a dynamic active conferencing portion hosted by live storytelling platform, Unravel.
The energetic and unapologetically-true-to-herself, Em Roblin took the stage and set the tone for the afternoon. Her advice to participants?
Look at the speakers, look at those around you and be inspired by them, not to be them, but to be YOU.
Too often we compare ourselves to others, but it takes real courage to compare yourself to you, and no one else. Only then can you evaluate where you are, and grow to where you want to be.
Greg Nance, Founder and CEO, Dyad and Sponsored Ultra Runner took the stage as the IPWS Summit opening Keynote speaker. 
Greg spoke about the four incredible women in his life who have taught him some very important lessons about courage.
To Greg, The Courage to Lead can be found within four words;
Leap
Explore
Activate
Dedicate
After Greg we welcomed Sunny Novak, Co-Founder and Managing Director, Mookey’s World.
She left us with three important lessons she had learned;
1 | Face your fear; you’ll have nothing if you don’t
2 | The first and last thing you have after facing your fear is Courage
3 | Never say “why me?!” — you’ll have already lost
Digital graphic recording by Zovi Weng
Clara Elizabeth Davis, Founder and Executive Producer of Unravel took the stage to tell us about the crazy ideas that have gotten her to where she is now.
Reminding us all that; what sounds like a crazy idea, often looks a lot like courage in the rearview mirror.
As the Founder of live storytelling platform, Unravel, Clara has helped hundreds of people find their story, and even through finding her own story, Clara assured us all, that no matter what you may think; everyone has a story worth telling.
Digital graphic recording by Zovi Weng
With that, Clara led us into our signature active conferencing portion of the Summit — leading a mini-workshop on storytelling, an essential element of leadership and communication.
Encouraging each attendee to reflect on her/his craziest idea, and giving each person the tools to tell this story.
Stories have the power to encourage, and encouragement is often the catalyst for Courage.
Who can you encourage with your story?
Fyiona Yong, Millennial Leadership Coach, Wholistic Coachsulting, reminded us through her own journey of switching careers, coaching others, climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro and a candid conversation with her father, that Courage is;
Resilience
Curiosity
Growth
Digital graphic recording by Zovi Weng
When Oscar Fuchs, Former MD and Co-Founder, ChapmanCG | Content Creator and Opinion Leader, Oscology took the stage he reminded us of that familiar voice we all have, saying, ‘there’s no way someone like me can do that.’ The voice that tells us our accomplishments pale in the face of others.
But the truth is, what may seem like luck, circumstance, ‘just getting through’ to you — can look like Courage to others.
The next time you think you’ve never done anything courageous, remember, Courage is a point of view.
Digital graphic recording by Zovi Weng
Em Roblin, Co-Founder and CEO, Inner Circles, Summit MC and closing speaker wrapped up the afternoon by reminding us all that the Courage is being true to yourself — recognizing your goals, your passion, your limitations and your failures.
Em encouraged everyone to leave the Summit by exiting the room declaring an act of Courage, no matter how small or insignificant it may seem; The Courage to Lead starts by recognizing something you want to change, and taking that first leap to change it.
We thank all of our incredible speakers for having The Courage to Lead, and sharing that with all of us.
During the Summit the winners of the Women Leadership Awards were also announced. We would like to congratulate the following winners and all the nominees and finalists who participated in the 2019 Women Leadership Awards 🎉
Business Leader of the Year
Anna Chitty
CEO, PHD China
Young Business Leader of the Year
Emily Spink-McCarthy
R&D President & Educational Chief Officer, American Eagle Institute
Entrepreneur of the Year
Barbara Ex
Founder & CEO, WhiteSpace
Social Contributor of the Year
Corinne Richeux Hua
Founder & Executive Director, Stepping Stones
Innovator of the Year
Gina Li
CEO & Co-Founder of Beach Creative Technology
HeforShe Man of the Year
George Ubbelohde
Dean, YueXiue Institute of Hospitality Administration
Lifetime Achievement Award
Theresa Hudzinski
Senior Manager, Workforce Management, Shanghai Disney Resort
Thank you to all of our sponsors, and community partners who made the Women Leadership Awards and IPWS Summit possible.
Special THANK YOU to all of our volunteers and interns who helped on the day of the Summit, donating their time and energy to making the whole day run smoothly;
Inbar, Joyce, Angele, Gloria, Linda J, Riva, Kang Kang & Linda
Thank you to the multiple photographers that snapped incredible photos during the IPWS Summit, to view all photos from the afternoon view Summit Gallery 1, Summit Gallery 2, or click here for the live VPhotos album.
Thank you to Zovi Weng for the incredible live digital graphic recordings. To reach out to Zovi, visit www.zoviism.com
Thank you to Go For Visual for also capturing the afternoon in beautiful illustrations. To contact Go For Visual search GoForVisual via WeChat.
