Go Negosyo will be celebrating its seventh anniversary this June, and we have been hosting the Women Entrepreneurship Summit and Expo for four years now. Even on its fourth year, the Women Entrep Summit is still the most attended Go Negosyo event, with thousands staying the whole day to listen to our featured women speakers and entrepreneurs.

Highlights of the event included an empowering speech from keynote speaker Mel Tiangco, one of the most respected news anchors of GMA7; and business and marketing lessons from Dr. Vicki Belo, who shared her company Belo Medical Group’s strategies to becoming one of the country’s most known and esteemed brands. Former Governor Grace Padaca proved that a handicap is not an impediment to rising to the top, while Myrna Padilla proved that, from her own experience, an OFW domestic worker can become the CEO of her own company. We were also very privileged to have Maria Mercedes Corrales, former regional president of Starbucks Asia-Pacific, to show and share how a Filipina can perform an international CEO function in one of the most known global companies.

Angelpreneur Joy Abaquin lectured on how to harness a woman’s innate maternal qualities in a plenary session entitled “Nurturing Children’s Strengths,” while our other Angelpreneurs Mylene Abiva, Carlo Calimon, Paulo Tibig, Reuel Virtucio and Butz Bartolome, as well as the Women’s Business Council of the Philippines and Association of Image Consultants International Philippines, spent the day at our mentoring booths, giving free mentorship sessions to participants.

The forums resulted in a dynamic and insightful session featuring panelists Cynthia Villar, Pinky Poe, Honey Sumndad-Usman, and the Women Starpreneurs in the morning forum; while celebrity entrepreneurs Maricel Laxa-Pangilinan, Vina Morales, Angeli Pangilinan-Valenciano, Fanny Serrano, Miriam Quiambao and Regine Tolentino spoke in the afternoon forum, stressing the importance of time management in shuffling between their businesses and showbiz careers.

Cynthia Villar also sponsored seminar rooms, providing lectures from real entrepreneurs or business owners on a range of topics: from online selling, to health and beauty, to self-defense.

Our summits have always been both educational and entertaining. GMA7 provided various talents who excited the crowd in between lectures and talks. Go Negosyo entrepreneur and MVP Bossing Vina Morales even provided several song numbers apart from participating in the afternoon forum.

We hope that the participants picked up insights and pointers that they can apply to succeed in life, especially since the summit hosted a large gathering of the country’s top women and entrepreneurs. Apart from our speakers, we’ve also recognized a new batch of Women Starpreneurs, whom we’ve featured in The Philippine STAR the past week. Their stories prove that Filipinos can achieve anything, no matter where you come from. As I’ve said to the participants at the summit, Filipinos are not destined for poverty, but success is for those who want it the most.