In celebration of International Women’s Day on March 8, the Ozmen Center for Entrepreneurship at the University of Nevada, Reno College of Business will host the fourth International Women’s Entrepreneurship Symposium (IWES). The symposium will be held in person this year, following a one-year hiatus in 2022 and an online event in 2021.

“We are very pleased to bring back the International Women’s Entrepreneurship Symposium this spring,” Dr. Mehmet Tosun, director of the Ozmen Center for Entrepreneurship and professor of economics, said. “We have a great line-up of speakers this year that will inspire women in our region to take leadership roles.”

The symposium will begin on March 7 with a leadership workshop led by Laura Jackson, the music director and first female conductor of the Reno Philharmonic Orchestra. Jackson previously spoke at the IWES conference in 2020 in addition to conducting leadership workshops for Fortune 500 companies.

On International Women’s Day, March 8, the symposium will continue with presentations from Nevada female business leaders, including Tina Quigley, the president and CEO of the Las Vegas Global Economic Alliance, and Ann Silver, the CEO of the Reno-Sparks Chamber of Commerce. Two speakers from the SGH Warsaw School of Economics, Professor Agnieszka Chlon-Dominczak and Dr. Elena Paweta, will provide an international perspective on women in entrepreneurship.

“IWES events have become a focal point for the local and global community by highlighting the role of women’s leadership in addressing today’s global challenges,” Armina Karapetian, a lecturer of marketing in the College of Business and organizer for the symposium, said. “We hope to inspire and encourage women throughout our region and globally to pursue their innovative ideas and approaches to tackle the momentous and urgent problems that our society faces today.”

The symposium will take place from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. in the Randall Rotunda in the Mathewson-IGT Knowledge Center on March 7 and 8. All events are open to the university community and the public.