Be authentic and dream @ Harper's Bazaar International Women's Day Summit

Inspiring, informative and connecting. These words came up to me on my way home after attending the first International Women’s Day Summit organised by Harper’s Bazaar and Branded U in Amsterdam.

DeLaMar Theatre in the city center of Amsterdam was packed with ambitious women all eager to learn, to get inspired and to meet other women and share their ideas.

"You don't become what you want, you become what you BELIEVE"  - Oprah Winfrey

Margriet Sitskoorn impressed me by training my brain, not only mine but also all the other women attending the summit. Margriet is a professor in clinical neuropsychology and she gave a convincing lecture on important skills that will lead to success.
About our working memory, our impulse control and our flexibility. Among the tests was a maths test. At the end we had to announce the answer but what I heard was wrong. What happened? Couldn’t I count anymore? Pfff, my result was correct by why most women gave the wrong answer? They were influenced by the professor in the way she was presenting the numbers.

Maybe it helped me that I was taught by my science teacher that girls are better in science than boys. I was surprised to hear from Margriet that men and women are equal in mathematics.
But I am so thankful to my female science teacher that she made me believe that girls are better. And I didn’t listen to the male saying that boys are better. Finally I was better in science than the boys but more important I believed I could be better!

Margriet Sitskoorn gave a glimpse of her EFFECT program to improve your skills, about learning new things everyday, about flow-focus training, about a fixed sleep pattern, on exercising with fun, about enjoying the small things and most important about time.

The message of Wassila Hachchi in het conversation with Silvana Simons was very clear: be authentic, that is the best power inside you. The talk was about managing a public image. Don’t care about what people are saying about you. Be yourself and don’t change because someone has a different opinion.

An inspiring quote by Meryl Streep

In a short video message by Corinne Vigreux, co-founder of TomTom, about perception, she gave an example to think about. In a room full of men, never serve coffee! As perception is reality men will think you are there for the coffee and not for example as head of the marketing department.

The discussion followed by this short film was about how you can ensure you are perceived the way you want to be perceived. So never ever serve coffee. Believe in yourself, listen to feedback, be calm en learn how to diverse, to be unique.

Just before the small break Anneke van Giersbergen couldn’t haven chosen for a better song than Cloudbusting with the lyrics ‘Ooh, I just know that something good is going to happen ’ originally by Kate Bush.

Sitting for almost two hours the smoothie with strawberries was a welcome treat. Not to mention the salmon wraps!

“Fuckingly boring” was Ilham Mestour’s answer to Cecile Narnix about the dutch hair. Ilham is a freelance hairstylist and Keune's Global Creative Artistic Director. She has done many editorials for magazines like Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar.
A bob-line suits a lot of people, and shoulder length hair is suitable for all ages, according to this international hairstylist.
I enjoyed watching the quiz Ilham had to take, she had to choose which hairstyle she liked most. Although she said earlier in her interview that Alexis of Dynasty had inspired her. She choose Krystle Carrington’s hairstyle above Alexis’. So the whole audience had a good laugh!
Ilham Mestour brought so much energy to the interview it was a joy to listen.

Another inspiring lady, Cassandra Stavrou, founder of Propercorn in London with Cypriot roots gave six guidelines to build a worldwide company. It is about creativity and empathy, about little things, about enterprising, about teambuilding but most of all be prepared to fail. And get up again!

Dr. Suess:' quote "Think left and think right and think low and think high. Oh, the thinks you can think up if only you try."

Janneke Niessen struggles with the quest, why only a few girls are interested in tech. We have to change the world in thinking in role models. Thinking about a nurse, you shouldn’t think immediately about a woman and about a fighter pilot as man. But even in a test with children between 5 and 7 years old proved that they already have stereotypes.

Using a lot of text in your presentation? Add a penguin, everybody loves penquins! Janneke Niessen

She Matters is a great initiative by Christina Moreno, helping immigrants and refugees to integrated in the dutch society. Every story should be told. As Christina told her story. She had a dream. Her circumstances were very difficult in the beginning of her life but she believed in her dream and became international lawyer. With She Matters she found her passion helping women and girls to get started in a new place. Christina found her why and her passion and asked us to find ours.

The panel discussion on Sisterhood in business was about the importance of supporting other women in your business. As for man it seems to come more natural.
During the after drinks I encountered it with some elderly women. I think they missed the message. Why is their so much envy between women? And disbelief? Encourage everyones dream! Especially among 'sisters'!

Sabrina Starke closed the summit with the song True Colours by Cyndi Lauper.

Time for a drink! Time to connect! But most of all be authentic and have a dream!

My outfit for the day!