KOCHI: Aspiring women entrepreneurs from across the country will converge in the city on Thursday for the Women Startup Summit, which is being hosted by the Kerala Startup Mission (KSUM) in association with the Indian Women Network under the Confederation of Indian Industries. The summit will bring together successful women leaders, startup founders, policymakers and aspiring women entrepreneurs on a common platform to share their experiences, aspirations and success stories.

The deliberations, with ‘Developing an Inclusive Entrepreneurship Ecosystem’ as the focal theme, will feature inspiring visionaries whose innovative actions are changing the world on an unprecedented scale. The event at the Integrated Startup Complex at Kalamassery will also host panel discussions, fireside chats and keynote conversations between female luminaries from a diverse range of fields such as technology, business, media and entertainment. Besides knowledge-based sessions, there will be one-on one interactions at the meet that is open for all women professionals, aspiring entrepreneurs, corporate leaders and startup founders.

The opening session will be addressed by KSUM CEO Saji Gopinath. Kerala State Planning Board member Mridul Eapen will deliver the inaugural address, while Teja Ventures founding partner Virginia Tan will give the keynote speech. This will be followed by a fireside chat between motivational speaker Rashmi Bansal and author-entrepreneur Muthumani Somasundaran.

A subsequent session on ‘Women in Business’ will have Avaana Capital founder Anjali Bansal, IAN co-founder Padmaja Ruparel and Federal Bank COO Shalini Warrier, besides Tan, as speakers. Brand Circle founder-CEO Malavika R Haritha will moderate. A networking break follows.

The next session, on ‘Women in Business’, will have Tan, Haritha, Bansal, Ruparel and Warrier. A networking break follows.

The next session, on ‘Women in Business’, will have Tan, Haritha, Bansal, Ruparel and Warrier. A networking break follows.

A panel discussion on ‘Inclusivity in the Workplace’ will be addressed by Naandika Tripathi (Forbes India), Anupam Nidhi (Siemens), Shelly Thakral (Facebook), Deepti Dutt (Amazon), Shrayana Bhattacharya (World Bank) and Seema Kumar (IBM). In the afternoon, Shilpa Elizabeth Abraham (WAN-IFRA), Niveda R M (Traschcon), Deena Jacob (Open Financial Technologies), Geetika Sharma (Vizara) and Jancy Jose (Strava) will be panelists for a discussion on ‘The Women Building Tomorrow’s Business’