At many conferences focused on diversity, there tends to be a lot of talk about visibility; however, at the first Women Shaping Wealth Summit held in Riyadh, the focus was on real-world financial control. The summit was hosted by Her Excellency Deemah Al Yahya and produced by PLAYBOOK, a worldwide professional networking organization. Over 3,000 investors, CEOs and founders attended this two day event at The Garage located within King Abdulaziz City for Science & Technology. This summit was co-sponsored by the Ministry of Investment through Invest Saudi and supported by UBS, Range Rover and Saudi Awwal Bank. The summit explored how women create, invest and shape capital. According to PLAYBOOK’s founder and CEO Wafa AlObaidat, the purpose of this summit was to move beyond just talking about issues related to gender equality and focus instead on decision making power: who gets funding, who is sitting on boards and where private money will go next.
In addition to providing information and education regarding women in finance, this summit provided attendees with numerous opportunities to engage in meaningful business transactions. One such opportunity was the “Power Pitch” competition. Forty female entrepreneurs were able to present their companies directly to potential funders (institutional allocators) during the course of two days. A total of twenty-eight judges evaluated each pitch and ultimately chose three winners based upon their presentations. First place went to Dr. Amani Abulaban, founder/CEO of Carevision. Second place went to Nouran Ghanam, CEO of STLLR Network. Third place went to Fatima Abdulghafar, CEO/co-founder of Tolun AI. In addition to the Power Pitch competition, this summit featured several “fireside chats” that discussed various aspects of the venture capital industry in the region. These fireside chats featured speakers including Nora Mohammed Alsarhan, CEO of Saudi Venture Capital along with representatives from Antler, Impact46, Doha Tech Angels and Plus VC. In addition to being able to participate in these types of events, attendees were able to receive 14 hours of CPD (Continuing Professional Development) credits via Blenducate. Thus, this summit became both a learning environment and a place where deals could occur.
Creating sustained momentum in one’s finances does not typically happen over a short period of time. Therefore, in conjunction with closing out this summit, PLAYBOOK launched its new AI-based mobile application. This application utilizes Layla, an AI-based advisor that has already created over 330 business relationships and matched over 100 mentors prior to this summit. The goal of this app is to allow individuals attending conferences to continue interacting digitally after they leave the conference site. Through this app, users will have access to a private global community consisting of over 12,000 members spanning 120 countries. Users will be able to take advantage of master classes, advisory groups and venture opportunities throughout the year. Finally, the summit concluded with a gala celebration at Kimpton KAFD titled “Women Shaping Wealth.” During this event, PLAYBOOK presented awards recognizing individuals making significant contributions to the regional economy. Among those receiving awards were Lama Alhamawi (Arab News Head of Diplomacy) who received the award for Woman of the Year; Henadi Al-Saleh (Agility Global PLC CEO) who received the award for Leadership Excellence; Rupa Popat (Araya Ventures Founding Partner) who received the award for Angel Investor of the Year; and Mariam Nusrat (Breshna Founder) who received the award for Tech Innovation. Plans are currently underway for another Women Shaping Wealth Summit to occur in 2027.