Photography by Liz Morris of Like a Boss Photography 

Katy Garner and Peace Mitchell co-founders of AusMumpreneur and The Women’s Business School hosted a 9-day trade mission to Lisbon, Portugal and London in November.

We believe investing in women is the number one way to change the world. We’re passionate about creating opportunities for women in business and finding creative ways for them to share their ideas with the world.

We know that when women are supported and connected in their journey, they have increased opportunities for success. Hosting this tour is an important part of our strategy to connect Australian women with global opportunities.

During the trade mission, the women participated in a number of events.

One of the highlights of the trip was a panel and reception hosted by the Australian Ambassador to Portugal, Her Excellency Claire Rochecouste in Lisbon on 5 November. The panel included Aparna Aurora, Mariana Santos, Peace Mitchell and Cristina Minoya Perez and the discussion was facilitated by Ambassador Rochecouste. The audience asked thought provoking and interesting questions which provided a lively and engaging discussion about entrepreneurship, women’s leadership and the challenges of creating change on a global scale.

Web Summit was another highlight, one of the largest tech events in the world with over 1000 speakers and 70,000 attendees, my favourite part was hearing from Melanie Perkins, Australia’s very own unicorn female founder, and her presentation on Canva’s incredible and inspirational rise to success.

We also attended a number of smaller side events, on Sunday night the WOW dinner where we heard from the Canadian Female Founder delegation. During the day on Monday a networking brunch event at Basilio hosted by Audrey Rochas of Womentoring. On Monday night the Digital Business Women night held at co-working space Selina’s hosted by Women in Tech UK Ambassador Candyce Costa where Peace Mitchell talked about ‘What successful women do differently.’

Another highlight of the tour was attending the glamourous Women in Tech Awards held at the spectacular Palazio Foz in central Lisbon. This event was hosted by Ayumi Moore Aoki, the founder of Women in Tech and attended by over 200 people including 4 female ambassadors: H.E. Florence Mangin, French Ambassador, H.E. Claire Rochecouste Australian Ambassador, H.E. Celia Anna Ferria, Philippines Ambassador and H.E. aLisa Rice Madan, Canadian Ambassador.

Queensland delegate Liz Morris was invited to photograph the event and captured beautiful images of the winners and guests on the night.

We were very excited when one of our own trade mission delegates, Jeanette Cheah of The Hacker Exchange was announced as one of the Award winners!

The winners included:

Women in Tech Allie Award: Jeanette Cheah

Aspiring Teen Award: Brianna Gopaul

Most Disruptive Award: Julia Salasky

StartUp Award: Dr Narisa Chauvidul-Aw

Global Leadership Award: Bedy Yang

Lifetime Achievement Award: Corinne Vigreux

We loved exploring beautiful Lisbon, an old city with so much history, delightful cobble stoned streets, extravagant architecture, delicious food (we recommend the custard tarts!) and warm and friendly people.

From Lisbon we flew to London for the Women Economic Summit.

This 3 day event was attended by women from over 47 countries coming together to discuss the 17 UN sustainable development goals.

7 of our 9 trade mission delegates spoke at this event on topics such as the role of education, women’s rights, overcoming challenges and leadership. We met incredible women changemakers from around the world at this event and we look forward to continuing to strengthen these relationships.

As well as the Women Economic Forum we also attended the launch of Sydney delegate Yemi Penn’s book ‘Did you get the Memo?’ an inspiring guide to discovering your untapped potential and creating the life you want.

“The FF Trade Mission was transformational for my businesses. First and foremost were the connections made of which one was with Mariana Santos based on the work she is doing to empower girls and women. This sits well with my Coaching business and overall vision to empower others. We are currently in talks for me to be an ambassador Chicas Poderosas in Australia.

Attending the websummit in Lisbon was monumental as I start to develop my tech products and create a start up company, hearing the women at the Australian Ambassador evening was a much needed boost to consider doing business in Lisbon especially as I am still part of the European Union being a British Citizen.

Attending the Women In Tech event in Lisbon was mind shifting as it reminded me to be visible as a Woman of Colour in Engineering/Technology. I have aspirations to further my work in championing girls in STEM and Women in Tech in Africa as well as closer to home in Australia and London.”

Yemi Penn, Sydney

The trade mission provided numerous benefits, learnings and highlights including discovering new opportunities for collaborations and partnerships and we’re excited to see what will develop for each of the delegates as a result of this tour.

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Our next trade mission is happening in May 2020 where we will be taking 15 founders to Paris and London, expressions of interest open soon.