“Be Bold”, said EY executive Sabine Betz. “Say Yes and see what happens”, said mountaineer Billi Bierling. “Just do it”, said self-made entrepreneur Anja Graf. “Stop talking and start doing” said nurse-turned-entrepreneur Alessia Schrepfer. In the end, they all struck the same chord: If you want to see change in the world, you’ll have to work for it.

More than 300 guests had come to the Park Hyatt Zurich for this year’s edition of the Forbes Women’s Summit. Apart from calls to action, they were able to listen to a variety of speakers and hear many approaches to increasing diversity and getting ahead as a woman in business and life.

The start was made by Dorothy Khadem-Missagh, a Viennese pianist and conductor that not only played some music, but also started with a fact: Out of the top 20 orchestras in the world, not a single one is run by a female chief conductor. Billi Bierling, who climbed six eight-thousanders (and hopes to add one more soon) spoke about mental strength and how the spotlight is very different for female mountaineers compared to their male colleagues.

Mirjam Staub-Bisang was up next, recently appointed Chair of BlackRock Switzerland. She addressed the dramatic shifts we’re seeing in the world and what capital markets can do to fill it. And JC Letellier, President & CEO of L’Oréal DACH, talked about the company’s claim “Creating The Beauty That Moves The World”, saying that beauty wasn’t something superficial, but rather a transformative force in the world.

Breaking The Barrier
After a networking break, three speakers talked about similar issues: Aurelia Frick (Senior Advisor, smzh ag) talked about becoming minister at age 33 and how we can all help to create a more diverse political landscape and businessworld. Sabine Betz (Managing Partner at EY Switzerland) told the audience how to break “the perfection barrier”. “With time, you learn that you don’t have to be perfect in everything you do and you don’t have to do everything yourself to get it right”. And Diana Markaki-Barthold, founder of the Boardroom, spoke about her mission to make boardrooms more diverse—and her journey as a solo founder. “It can get incredibly lonely, something that I still struggle with.”

After a lunch break, participants went into breakout sessions. These interactive workshops focused on five different topics: “Negotiating”, hosted by Anna Cajot and David Hughes of the Schranner Negotiation Institute; “Making, Investing, And Spending Money”, hosted by Gzim Hasani, CEO of smzh ag; “Mental Strengh”, hosted by Billi Bierling; “Power Up”, hosted by Robin Errico, Sabine Oestlung, Margit Vunder, Sabine Betz and Jenny Mathias of EY Switzerland; and “Women In Sales”, hosted by Dieter Menyhart. They all offered participants with concrete advice and powerful tools to accelerate change as well as their career.

The finale came with an Under 30 Panel on “Entreprenuerial Impact”, where Nielufar Saffari (Co-Founder, Dolmx), Laura Stocco (Co-Founder, Openversum), Carla Gonzaga Vilela Hänny (Co-Founder, Nikin) and Valérie Berger (Associate in the Corporate and M&A Team at Wenger Plattner) discussed having impact as social entrepreneurs.

Hard work pays off
Yaël Meier gave insights into Gen Z and how she uses this knowledge to work with customers such as Porsche with her agency Zeam. And finally, Anja Graf, who recently made the cover of Forbes, told her story of building Visionapartments, which has built up a real estate portfolio of CHF 1bn by offering serviced apartments in Switzerland, Germany, Romania and Poland.

The Forbes Women’s Summit was a day full of insights and energy. Interestingly, many speakers also spoke openly about the hardships of “making it”, giving the attendees the impression that change is possible—it just requires a lot of hard work.

Thank you to our sponsors smzh ag, L’Oréal, EY Switzerland, the Boardroom, Outletcity Metzingen, Wenger Plattner, and the Park Hyatt Zurich. We’re looking forward to seeing you next year!

Foto: Svitlana Mazina