At the 11th Filipina Leadership Global Summit, which started on October 5 and will run till October 8, two milestones are taking place. The first breakthrough, for instance, is the fact that in the history of its organizer, the Filipina Women’s Network (FWN)
Text and photos by Bernard Testa | Lifestyle Section, InterAksyon.com · Wednesday, October 8, 2014 · 10:04 am
At the 11th Filipina Leadership Global Summit, which started on October 5 and will run till October 8, two milestones are taking place. The first breakthrough, for instance, is the fact that in the history of its organizer, the Filipina Women’s Network (FWN), this is the first time that the San Francisco-based organization is holding its summit outside of the United States.
“We’re going back to our roots, our home country, the ***Philippines***” stated the organization in its Facebook events page.
Second is the launching of a breakthrough book inspired from the stories of the 400 awardees sharing insights from their career and business experiences to help inspire Filipinas across the globe.
On Monday, October 6, at Makati Shangri-la hotel in Makati City, around 100 delegates and awardees from 16 economic sectors attended the second day of the summit. Among the delegates were White House Executive Chef Cris Comerford and philanthropist Loida Nicolas Lewis.
Besides the panel discussion, there was also a book launching for Disrupt, the organization’s first publication consisting of reflections on the meaning of leadership by Filipinas across the world.
The book shares the stories of how Filipinas have risen above complex personal and professional challenges while living and working in multiple cultures and, in the process, have transformed into strong advocates of social change—addressing issues such as domestic violence, human rights, and workers’ rights.
The book portrays how “Filipino women have been the agents and objects of disruption because of issues on immigration, workplace relocations, sudden death of a loved one, domestic violence and other sudden perturbations.”
Maya Ong Escudero, managing editor and board member of FWN explains how the book came into being: ”We decided to publish Disrupt because from our last summit, we had a panel of women who were working from several places across the world; we decided to collect their stories through a book so that we can impart the leadership tips and values they have developed over their years of work.
“We asked all of the our 400 awardees to write chapters but because of the limited time, we ended up with just 35 authors who were able to send in their stories.
“Were hoping that the the younger Filipinas in their professions will learn from the leadership tips from this certified professionals, and we’re hoping that our next set of awardees will come out with their own leadership tips so that we will have a big archive of tips that we can share to the younger Filipinas everywhere.”
FWN will also launch Disrupt in Dubai on October 14, then in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Portland, Chicago, Boston, Washington, DC, and Dallas. On November 3, the book will have an online version available through Amazon, an e-book, and a version for people with disabilities.
