Resilience and Wellbeing: Real Women.Real Stories

Last week on 8 March we held an online event “Wellbeing and Resilience: Real Women. Real Stories” to celebrate the International Women’s Day. The event was organised jointly with Irish-Latvian Chamber of Commerce and RISEBA University. This online event consisted of 2 discussion panels with participation of inspiring women from different sectors sharing their knowledge and life experience, thus empowering other women.

The speakers for the first panel discussion “Prioritising Wellbeing on personal and company level” were Anna Andersone (Entrepreneur and Head of Riga TechGirls), Anne-Marie Martin (Director of Global Business Networks, British Chambers of Commerce) and Zanda Šmate (HR Senior Expert, Mars Multisales Baltics, Balkans, Ukraine, Israel). The discussion was moderated by Aija Brūvere, Head of Career Development and Alumni Centre RISEBA University/ Positive Psychology Coach. During this session, speakers shared their “golden rules” of wellbeing, some of which were the importance of strict division between work and personal time, importance of daily physical activities and walks in fresh air as well as suggestions of different apps to use in order to achieve the wellbeing balance in both your personal and professional life.

The speakers for the second panel discussion “Resilience: how to grow when facing difficulties” were Trudy Žagare (Consultant/ Chair of Council, King’s College – The British School in Latvia), Māra Bondare – Petersen (Chairperson, “Valdro Agro”) and Jelena Gromova, MBA (Founder of a sustainable sportswear brand Nakeid Sportswear and Partner of TryFit Technologies). The discussion was moderated by Irina Senņikova, Dean of the Faculty of Business and Economics and Bachelor study programme director of “European Business Studies”, RISEBA University. During this session, speakers shared they life stories and how they have grown into strong and resilient personalities. They also shared tips and tricks on how to train your resilience and fight your fears when facing with challenges and life changing decisions.

We would like to thank our wonderful speakers and moderators for finding time to address the participants and share their experience thus empowering other women, especially during these challenging times. We hope that everyone who attended the event obtained some useful and practical ideas in order to thrive and be ready to face their fears when making challenging decisions.