For many women, starting a business and taking charge of their career can feel daunting. However, Run The World, a women’s entrepreneurial summit, is making the jump easier for young ambitious women.
This isn’t the first time that Her Campus has had the pleasure of visiting one of their women’s networking events, and I was so grateful to be invited back!
The summit was founded in 2017 by three minority women entrepreneurs: founder Zaina Moussa, co-founder Rafaa Chapti, and Branding Officer Amanee Nassereddine. These incredible women have put together a place for aspiring female entrepreneurs to take initiative in their careers and to start their own businesses.
Run The World events offer women a safe place to network, share ideas, learn from mentors and display their own products and services. So it’s no surprise that they’ve started growing in popularity and demand.
“Summits like this cultivate community,” says Nassereddine, chief brand officer of Run The World. “It allows individuals to realize no matter what they’re going through, they’re not alone.”
The events are often a mix of networking activities, speaker panels, meals, and swag bags, which often consist of up-and-coming women-founded brands.
The panels take place throughout the day, with breaks in between for activations such as somatic healing, networking, and food. Each speaker panel brings on inspiring women who have carved out a life for themselves through their drive for success.
Some of the notable speakers who were at this most recent summit are Tamera Mowsy from the ’90s sitcom Sister Sister, award-winning Canadian singer Keshia Chante, and TV personality Lisa Chang.
Chante shared some touching points on self-confidence in relation to growing as not just a business owner but a young person as well. She follows the mentality, “If you don’t like me, that is okay because I like me.”
Many of the speakers tied their journeys back to challenges they had to overcome and the importance of faith in allowing them to do so. Mowry, actress and business venturist, shared how her belief in God allowed her to stay away from roles that didn’t fit her values in Hollywood.
“One time, I knew what I was doing wasn’t right because confusion is not of God. And how you know is when there is an alignment with God, you have that peace and know that this is where I’m supposed to go,” she said.
Moussa, founder of Run The World, also asked about how much of an influence faith had in Mowry’s life. “It plays in every decision, I can’t have it any other way,” Mowry replied.
Not only were the speaker panels moving, but seeing a group of young women with the same purpose share a space shifted the room’s energy to something purposeful.
Moussa gave Her Campus some insight into why networking is such a powerful tool. “It is a very lonely world, and being in spaces like this where we’re able to create authentic connections is so important for our self-development and understanding what your purpose is,” she said.
Creating opportunities for young women to build those connections is extremely helpful and it’s clear events like this aid in doing so. “This is where you find your mentors; it’s events like this,” said Gazzy Amin, a woman who started as an attendee of the summit and is now a project manager and speaker at these events.
The founders of Run The World have plans to take the company internationally soon and host summits like these for women in places like Dubai and Los Angeles.
“The ladies behind it, we are a very special trio; it’s not what we do, it’s who does it,” Nasserddine said in closing.