Arab businesswomen's conference in Dubai

On October 1 the first Arab and international businesswomen's conference will be held in the Crowne Plaza hotel in Dubai, bringing together a number of speakers who have succeeded in life against the odds and despite being women.

'The speakers at this event will be businesswomen from all over the world who have started their own businesses, sometimes in the face of great adversity,' says organiser Gloria Giles. 'We want to hear their story. How they did it and the mistakes they made along the way'.

For example, Australian real estate leader Margaret Jurca will explain how she built a billion dollar company after being involved in a car crash which killed her baby and left her hospitalized for nine months. British businesswoman Avril Owton will tell how she took over a run down hotel after the death of her husband left her with four children.

The organizers hope for an audience of 250 women, quite an ambitious target in Dubai where conference audiences are often small. But this is a pretty impressive programme, part inspirational with interesting speakers, and part purely practical with 13 workshops from obtaining business finance to marketing basics.

Inevitably the conference also makes a political point in a region where women are often restricted and in some cases prevented from working.

As Dubai Internet City chief executive officer Dr. Omar bin Sulaiman commented: 'I am proud to say that businesswomen have made a key contribution to making the UAE a progressive and forward looking nation, and that women play leadership roles in every sphere of life'.

However, not everywhere is as liberal as the UAE, but the role of women can still be underestimated.

'In Saudi Arabia some 40% of private wealth is in the hands of women, while 29% of qualified national workers in Dubai are women,' noted Ms. Nadia Soussi of HSBC Republic, the private banking arm of HSBC Group. 'We set up a group earlier this year to offer services specifically for lady investors and entrepreneurs in the Middle East'.

The DIC and HSBC are sponsoring the conference, along with others including Shell, Emirates, Motivate Publishing, and Emirates. For further details and registration visit the website www.aibwc.com.