Of The Moment: DVF x IWD Event Day 3

DVF celebrates International Women's Day...Everything you need to know about day 3 of our events.

March 9th, 2018

9am: “The Leadership to Inspire: Small Business and Big Impacts from Women Entrepreneurs Making a Difference”

We like our morning coffee with a dash of inspiration—and that’s exactly what was served first thing today. Beginning at 9am, entrepreneurs from a variety of fields gathered for the panel moderated by remarkable Stephanie Mehta, the new editor of Fast Company. All the businesswomen discovered they shared something in common: the constant pushbacks from naysayers when starting their business drove them to succeed.

“Having something that you’re fighting against is actually helpful,” said Whitney Tingle, who co-founded Sakara Life with Danielle Duboise, who added, “It drives you.” Co-founder of Floodgate investment fund Ann Miura-Ko founded a venture capital firm in the shadow of the 2008 crisis. “I wanted to show people how to do what they said couldn't be done. I wanted to prove it was possible.”

Audrey Gelman, co-founder of The Wing, said of her early resistors: “We just had to smile and shake their hand and know we weren’t meant to work with them.” What all of these women have in common is an overwhelming desire to do what they love—something that shouldn’t be underestimated.

And for Ariela Suster, founder of Sequence, curbing violence in her hometown of El Salvador by employing men who might otherwise end up in gangs is an issue close to her heart. To accomplish it, she knew she had to get to the heart of the problem: “These men need respect and a sense of belonging” - exactly what employment via Sequence gives them. Jennifer Hyman, the co-founder and CEO of Rent the Runway, spoke her truth: “The only risk in life is spending your time doing something you’re not passionate about.”

9:30am: Diane, Ariela, and Alyse Discuss Mentorship and Vital Voices

30 minutes later, we arrived at the DVF Meatpacking location, where guests enjoyed coffee and breakfast, and then sat down for a motivational talk with Diane and Ariela Suster, led by Vital Voices president CEO Alyse Nelson. “Everybody is talking about how it’s the year of the woman and how we’ve finally found our voice,” Alyse said, starting the panel off on a strong note. “I’m here to tell you that we’ve had our voice the whole time. People are just starting to take notice.”

Representing the countless students who have risen up and fought back after the Parkland shooting three weeks ago, Delaney, 17, explained how the choice to become an activist was in fact not a choice at all. “We were born into school shootings,” Sarah, 16, said, “Columbine happened in 1999, I was born in 2001, Delaney in 2000.” And since no one else is doing it for them, they must do it themselves.

Jamira, 28, – named White House Champion for Change and the first of 16 siblings to graduate college, realized she had to so something about gun violence after it affected her family directly. “I was raised in a community where incarceration was normal,” she said. “But when my 20-year-old brother was shot and killed, I realized that being ‘normal’ does not make it right.” Since the age of 15 she’s been fighting to end gun violence and has found working with teens to be the most effective, the demographic ring-fenced by Rowan, 16, as the most engaged.

“I learn about activism from teenagers on the internet,” she said. This is a pivotal moment in America, when we’re really starting to see the power of teenagers and youth. Take Pamela—a Peruvian-born, undocumented Muslim—who is still in her 20s, but her wizened outlook on immigration and the discrimination of immigrants comes from first hand experience. “I’m not ashamed that I have no pathway to citizenship,” she said. “I’m ashamed in congress—ashamed that they haven’t been able to pass legislation and haven’t gotten their jobs done.”

10:30am: “Amplifying Your Impact: Investing in Generosity”

The third and final panel of our DVF x IWD event series featured women who have devoted their lives to ending female subjugation and violence around the world. Kate Roberts and Her Royal Highness, The Crown Princess, Mette Marit co-founded Maverick Collective, which brings together philanthropists to use their true net worth to create change. And among the many people they’ve partnered with is Julia Lourie, who joined the panel and is determined to end cervical cancer. Crucial to Maverick’s strategy is taking a business approach to everything that they do. “We never talk about charity,” Kate said. “Solutions are in the private sector.”

Proving that stories are the most powerful and impactful form of communication, Indrani Goradia, founder of Indrani’s Light Foundation, and Nènè Fofana Cissé, founder of PSI both used personal stories to talk about their work helping women around the world to become educated, independent enough to lead healthy, meaningful lives. In Nènè’s native West Africa’s Ivory Coast, “every woman is raised to think that if you’re a woman, you’re meant to suffer.”

Having witnessed friends be stripped entirely of their rights and treated like little more than a vehicle to make children, she realized that in order to help these women, she needs to educate them and ultimately reverse the lack of information about women’s rights that plagues her home country. Indrani’s story is equally as inspiring and, as she mentioned multiple times, proof that anyone can do anything they put their mind to.

House Happenings

Danielle Duboise and Whitney Tingle, entrepreneurial co-founders of uber-healthy meal-delivery service Sakara Life, hosted a lunch today with their friends and Diane, which focused on uplifting other women and even included a nice meditative respite.

Once the panels were over, guests headed downstairs to join customers who popped in for some shopping, or else found themselves trying out our Om Digital gadgets and devices that are set up on the first floor of our Meatpacking location. You can come by and tell DVF what it means for you to be #INCHARGE by filming your own customizable clip in our Om Digital #INCHARGE video booth (and have the chance to appear on the DVF Instagram). Or get your photo taken on the Om Digital Cube—a reference to Diane’s iconic “cube photo”—and while it prints out and instantly upload it to your social media feed. They’ll be set up until end of the day on Sunday—don’t miss out!