The Academy for Women Entrepreneurs Indo-Pacific Women-in-Tech Summit: Developing a Sisterhood of Entrepreneurial Women | Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs

As we enter 2024 in eager anticipation of what the new year has in store, the Academy for Women Entrepreneurs (AWE) revisits some of the many successes of this past year. One particular event, the first-ever Indo-Pacific Women in Tech Summit, comes to mind. The Summit, which took place in Taipei in mid–November, stands as a testament to the progress made towards empowering increased female entrepreneurship as well as efforts of the United States Government to support economic stability, opportunity, and equity abroad. 

The Indo-Pacific Summit gathered together women entrepreneurs and alumni of the AWE program from Brunei, India, Malaysia, New Zealand, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, and Vietnam. The inaugural event included networking opportunities, training workshops, and ultimately a pitch competition.

One of the many women in attendance was AWE alum Shao Hua Huang, a female entrepreneur from Taiwan who founded Cocoon Bravolution. Her company, which she founded just over a year ago, works to empower women and bra-wearers across Asia through the development of personalized consultation and measuring techniques aimed at matching customers with ideal-fitting undergarments. Through the development of a unique virtual platform, Cocoon Bravolution employs database technology to ensure a perfect fit while maintaining total privacy for customers. Huang remarked on the many challenges of starting a female-run business–particularly one that deals with the often taboo subject of bras. The new fashion tech industry in Taiwan is a largely male-dominated field, meaning Cocoon Bravolution proved to be unrelatable for many of Huang’s peers and potential mentors. The Indo-Pacific Summit for women provided a refreshingly “welcoming atmosphere” and an opportunity to interact with and gain inspiration from like-minded women who could better relate to her business as well as its goals. Similarly, with help from marketing workshops developed through an AWE partnership with Meta, Huang was able to better understand her target audience and the strategies to best reach it. Inspired by the network of female entrepreneurs Huang met through the AWE program and at the Summit, as well as her dedication to promoting inclusivity and empowerment, when asked for words of wisdom or advice she might give to aspiring female entrepreneurs, Huang said “take AWE as an example – women need to help each other.”
Ping Ping Han is another impressive AWE alumni, this time from Singapore, who attended the recent Indo-Pacific Summit. Han is the founder of Aloha, a circular commerce platform that helps businesses to Connect, Repurpose, and Monetise recycling actions into revenue generating experiences or recycled products, having served clients from the travel hospitality to technology sectors. As first place winner of the Summit’s startup pitch competition, she recognized the value of the confidence she gained from the Indo-Pacific Summit. Han believes that one of the biggest challenges facing women entrepreneurs is hesitancy and a tendency to “overthink and over-prepare.” Empowered and inspired by the “spirit of camaraderie” which Han found to be remarkably palpable throughout her time as a participant in the AWE program as well as at the recent Summit, she appreciates how important learning to “just go for it” can be.

The Academy for Women Entrepreneurs’ first-ever Indo-Pacific Women in Tech Summit proved to be a major success as it provided a unique opportunity to expand the network of AWE Alumni, collaboratively empowering women from AWE programs all across Asia.