Asian Women’s Empowerment Conference
❖ Presented by AWE Organization (founder: Juno Kim)
❖ Website: http://aweasia.org
❖ Twitter: @aweasia
❖ Facebook: AWE Organization
❖ Funding period: Nov 10, 2013
Background
I wanted to present this idea to all of you through Kickstarter, the forum everyone else uses when they have a brilliant creative project they want to fund. But because I am a Korean citizen, I wasn’t able to register. Kickstarter is currently only open to US, Canada, and UK-based creators. I could have asked one of my team members (who is a US citizen) to register for me, but I didn’t want to participate in a community where I was not eligible.
This experience represents a prime challenge I deal with as an entrepreneur from Asia. This is why I decided to open my own fundraising project on RunawayJuno.com, instead of Kickstarter.
Why I founded AWE Organization
As a woman, and an Asian, I’ve overcome a number of big obstacles in my life over the last three years. I’ve met lots of inspiring people during my travels who have been through similar troubles. But most of the encounters I have had since I declared my so-called ‘Bucket Living’ lifestyle were with people who stood exactly where I was three years ago: full of questions and fear, feeling lost and numb. Asian women who were desperately seeking for opportunities beyond what they had traditionally been offered, but didn’t have the courage and knowhow to power through; these are the people who inspired me to organize this community.
I want to encourage women to take charge of their lives, follow their hearts and passion, in spite of social norms. Moreover, I want them to be supported and prepared to deal with societal reaction, and know the challenges they will face.
“Limiting women’s economic potential is like leaving money on the table. It doesn’t make sense, especially when we are still struggling to grow our way out of the economic crisis.”
– U.S. Secretary of State, Hilary Clinton
Purpose of AWE conference
To empowering Asian women to follow their dreams and thrive living in an independent lifestyle.
Breaking the mold and standing out is tougher for Asian. We are restricted by culture, religion, and social convention. Many ambitious women have been going abroad, where it’s easier to follow their passions in an unconventional path.
The world is changing and Asia is slowly participating in its movement. While it is still difficult for women to choose their own path in Asian society, there are increasingly more and more inspirational Asian women who are impacting our global world. AWE Conference will present grassroots models of successful Asian women and discuss participants’ current life goals through workshops that help them design the roads to their own success.
What We Want to Achieve
To spark inspiration, initiate action.
Ideas will simply remain ideas if not connected to action. Through the AWE Conference I want to not only spark inspiration from successful cases of Asian female trailblazers, but also initiate action by offering practical information. Support systems for Asian women who want to step aside from the common path do not always exist. Freelancers, world travelers, non-profit/ngo starters, and creatives are struggling with the lack of support. Furthermore, women from underprivileged backgrounds are not encouraged often enough to be involved in society’s hierarchical system.
Against all these odds, there are women who have followed their passion, and have achieved enormous success. I have invited some of the most inspiring of these women to my conference. They will share their story of success with participants. They will share their stories of struggle and success with participants, providing real-world guidance and inspiration. They will also answer questions and offer practical information to participants so they can begin creating their own unconventional success stories.
Who the Conference is For
AWE Conference is designed for Asian women and expatriates in Asia who want to:
✔ Thrive within unconventional life choices
✔ Acquire ideas of diverse paths to success
✔ Belong to a community of inspiring women
✔ Seek more opportunities in life
✔ Get inspired to achieve their dreams
When and Where is AWE Conference?
Our conference is a two-day event comprised of talks, sessions, and workshops from November 8 to 10, in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
How You Can Help
I’m asking you to be a part of this conference as an honorary guest. The registration fee for attendees is $40 USD (regular registration is open for $42 USD).
Despite this being a relatively high cost for participants in this region of the world, the money still doesn’t cover our operating costs. I have reduced the attendee price hoping to encourage more women from as many countries as possible.
Where Does Your Money Go?
Your money goes directly to cover the expenses of the conference. We need an auditorium, meeting room, and digital equipment for the presentations. We also intend to pay the expenses of the inspirational speakers and staff who have set their heart in making this organization come to life.
Note that the funds we state as our goal are a minimum to make this amazing and ambitious project happen. Any additional funds beyond that goal will allow us to make the project even better.
Risk and Challenges
We seek funding to cover the gap between our ticket and actual costs for the event. The financial risk of not raising enough funds is our biggest obstacle in this project. Using a substantial conference hall is essential to host a global event like AWE. Despite this being a relatively high cost for participants in this region of the world, the money still doesn’t cover our operating expenses. We have reduced costs as much as possible by limiting our time in the extra meeting room, but the basic cost of the Conference venue is inevitable.
We have reached out to a few other resources for their support, but we have yet to raise the money needed to make this conference run successfully.
Wish to support more than $100 USD? We’d appreciate it! Please click this button below.
Pledge
$20 USD
❖ Virtual hug and public thank you posted online (Twitter, Facebook, and any other channel you are on).
❖ Subscription to our newsletter: you will be the first to know what’s going on in our organization.
$40 USD
❖ Virtual hug and public thank you posted online (Twitter, Facebook, and any other channel you are on).
❖ Honorary member: your name will be listed on our website.
❖ Subscription to our newsletter: you will be the first to know what’s going on in our organization.
$100 USD
❖ Virtual hug and public thank you posted online (Twitter, Facebook, and any other channel you are on).
❖ Conference Benefactor: your name will be listed on our website, and conference program.
❖ Subscription to our newsletter: you will be the first one to know what’s going on in our organization.
❖ Personalized thank you email, and postcard with recognition of your support to successful conference.
$100 USD and more
❖ All above and more…
#The payment is made through PayPal.com. You can check out with your credit card of debit card, if you don’t have a PayPal account. If you wish to support us with other method, please contact me (runawayjuno@runawayjuno.com).
