KUALA LUMPUR: The Academy for Women Entrepreneurs celebrates International Women's Day through Regional Summit with nearly 200 successful women entrepreneurs and business leaders across the Indo- Pacific region.
The three-day summit beginning Tuesday, is aimed to guide participants on topics such as using technology to scale up business models, future-proofing businesses, and pitching and marketing to investors.
The participants hailed from countries such as Brunei, Fiji, Malaysia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, and Vietnam.
While sharing stories on their journey towards entrepreneurship, participants also stressed the importance of networking and having strong support system.
Irene Mositol, 32, from Sabah is the founder of DumoWongi, a Sabah-based social enterprise that produces organic, pesticide-free herbal products.
She said through her business, she aims to raise awareness on the importance of natural farming as the use of chemicals in agriculture grows rampant.
"Many people in our area do agriculture on a big scale and use harmful chemicals. So, (that's why) we want to promote natural farming.
"This, however, is not easy because we have to deal with pest diseases. Due to this, we cannot grow the herbs in big quantities despite getting high demand.
"Right now, we have seven core teams comprising 70 members who are working hard to deal with operational matters such as marketing and deliveries," she said in an interview with the New Straits Times.
Irene said that her mentor, Nina Othman said that it is important for aspiring women entrepreneurs to have a good support system.
"She helped me and suggested AWE. Through this programme, I can map and plan my goals and business model.
"My business community also helped me to be where I am because they are very hardworking such as Jamyica, Clare, Jovita, Henritta, Raini, Beatrice, and Ludiah.
"If you're working in a community, you must always understand their needs," she said.
Hailing from Brunei, Heartileaf Enterprise founder Hashimah Sanusi, 33 with her unique terrarium business reminds everyone to not be afraid of taking risks and reaching out to people when starting a business.
"For those who want to start a business with a unique outlook or product, it is best to start small and build your network.
"Supportive network is very important including friends and families. Make sure they understand your vision why and for who you're doing this.
"There are many opportunities as more programmes for women are provided out there for us to be self-sustaining in creating our own business. So, don't be afraid to reach out."
Hashimah, a self-taught terrarium maker said the idea of opening up her business is to raise awareness about maintaining terrariums.
"I learnt to do everything from scratch. I've also done numerous workshops in Brunei.
"I'm proud that I still have many customers coming in up until this day, and even corporate companies reached out to me to do a team-building terrarium workshop.
"It is very therapeutic to create your terrarium which is what a lot of people need these days.
Lynia Huang, from Taiwan and chief executive officer of Bamboo Technology said that the experience of loneliness inspired her to create an artificial intelligence (AI) companion app called Here Hear.
Huang, who is also a psychologist said that she also suffered from depression and finds it difficult to express her stories to other people.
"One night, I felt hopeless because I tried to call someone to talk about my problems but couldn't because it was in the middle of the night.
"However, I don't want to tell my family because I don't want them to worry.
"Later on, this inspired me to create an app that enables people to express themselves freely and also gain advice from the app itself."
She added that the app allows users to record their voice which will then be analysed to determine their emotional state.
It will then give you recommendations such as music, medication, and psychology course with licensed therapists if needed, she said.
"The idea behind the name Bamboo Technology is that bamboo is very resilient.
"No matter how many times the problems bring us down, we must always stand back up and never give up." said Huang.