Orange summit to showcase women as change-makers

Everyone from Instagrammers and YouTubers to filmmakers and brand-builders are expected to be part of the event at The English Tearoom in Alwarpet - which is part of a four-city series (Mumbai, Bengaluru, Delhi and Chennai).

Aparna Vedapuri Singh, founder of Women’s Web says that the idea was to include many cities and reach out to more like-minded women who could network and collaborate on projects together. “We are a community-driven platform of over 2000 members, and progress through women who aren’t afraid of airing their views and voicing out in public – they take risks in the process, and that is something to be celebrated. We are endeavouring to create a safe space for them. We are also honouring women across India with awards in 15 different categories to be held in Mumbai later this month – the event in Chennai is a pre-cursor to that. It’s an open event, free to be attended by both men and women.”

Author and poet from Chennai, Sharada Vijay, who will be one of the speakers at the summit, adds that the idea is to address important issues which modern-day women face – “Such as the abuse and harassment they face online when speaking out. Everyone seems to think only physical abuse counts, but online negativity can lead to so many issues like stalking and worse. People need to be made aware of this, and more importantly, find ways to tackle this. That’s what I want to focus on.”

She adds, “Activists, entrepreneurs, NGO heads, women who take online classes, social enterprise founders, and so on.. these are the kind of influential people the spotlight should be on. This will be a great opportunity for us all to come together.”