The theme for International Women’s Day 2023 was embracingequity. With the increase of DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) not only in the workplace but in general society, the goal has always been to promote fair treatment and full participation of all people, particularly people who have been ignored or under-represented. All though this is great, there has been more of a focus on the ‘D’ and the ‘I’ but not enough on the ‘E’ – Equity. That is why KeyNote – Women Speakers Directory wanted to write a book on ‘Embracing Equity’.
We’re proud to represent a group of dynamic and inspiring women speakers who are using their expertise and unique perspectives to drive a positive change in their communities and beyond. So when we wanted to write this book, it wasn’t hard to find amazing individuals who could co-author on this significant topic. So we reached out to our directory in January this year and we were blown away by the response, 17 speakers and community members from around the world put their hands up to share their experiences and tools on how to see a more equitable world.
Many people think equality and equity are the same but they are not. In the book we make the distinction between the two. Most people tend to have a equality mindset but the truth is it is not fair when we give everyone the same opportunity or resource. We have come to realise that we need more equity in our DNA if we want to see KeyNote’s mission coming to life – bringing more diversity to stages around the world.
So we started the journey with the goal to complete the book in less than 2 months – from drafts to edits to finally publishing. To be honest there were many doubts if we could pull this off. It definitely did stretch our authors but with the help of our amazing publishing house – Global Influencers Publishing House(https://globalinfluencers.sg), Sarah Kelly our Project Manager (who is also an author in the book) and our community who helped with editing and promotions – we did it!
We had aimed to have our book available online by the 8th of March to commemorate internationalwomensday2023. We officially launched our book on Amazon on the 7th, which was 1 day earlier than our target! And within 24 hours our book became a best seller! Our aim was to empower and inspire women from all walks of life. A big shout out to Global Influencers who put our book on the map but also our authors who personally promoted the book at events and on their own personal platforms.
To celebrate not only the launching of our book but also it becoming a best seller, the authors in Singapore met together with their families to commemorate this momentous occasion. It was a fun night full of laughter as they reminisced on the whole experience as well as finally getting copies of the book in hand. However, we did miss our other authors who are in other parts of the world.
Our authors have bared their souls and shared their life journeys, experiences and insights on topics that are close to their hearts. Thank you all for your hard work – it was worth it! Yasmine Khater – Brain Based Sales Coach, CSP, Anna Joke Breimer Bharati, Zhala Sarmast, Adele Hung, Anupama Murali, Raquel Ark, Lissy Ann Puno, Priyadarshini Sharma, Wendy Leong, Elke Duwenig, Magdalena Poulin, Arthi S Rabikrisson, MBA, ACC (ICF), Karen Schofield, Surabhi Kapoor, Sara Kelly and Maneesha Benedict
We are honoured and grateful to have you, our cherished readers, with us on this journey. Your passion and commitment to supporting women in leadership and promoting diversityequityinclusion are what makes our work worthwhile. We hope that this book will inspire you to join our quest towards a more fairer world.
