Business Forum 2019 - Women in Business

Business Forum 2019 Report


Business Forum 2019 is an annual event presented under the main theme of “Women in Business”. This event is created and organized by International Business Club (IBC) and led by our Project Chair Ms. Lao Lissa. The event took place at Cambodia-Korea Cooperation Center (CKCC) on Sunday 03rd November 2019, from 1pm to 5:30pm. Moreover, Mrs. Maria Isabelita C. Manzon-Cabrera, Lecturer of CamEd Business School, was invited to give an opening remark and the closing remark was presented by Ms. Lao Lissa, Project Chair of Business Forum 2019. There were approximately 450 audiences participate in the forum including our partners as special guests, as well as our target audiences who are university students and entrepreneurs. Last but not least, we had the privilege to invite four professional female entrepreneurs as our guest speakers who are:


H.E Mam Dathalineth, the advisor to the Ministry of Information in Rank of Under Secretary of State

Ms. Seang Sokcheng, the Co-founder and blogger of Wapatoa

Ms. Thaung Thyda, the Founder of Thaung Enterprise

H.E Koung Sorita, the Advisor to the Ministry of Women’s Affairs in Charge of Economy and Chairwoman of BlueBird British International School.

And this year as well, we had a great honor to have Mr. Thai Vantha (Jerry Thai), who is the founder of @home Photography and Inspired Cambodia as our moderator in Panel Discussion session.


I. Purpose of the event:

By conducting the event of “Business Forum 2019”, we aimed:
To bring awareness to the gap between the number of women and men in business.
To bring attention to the struggles and challenges that are faced by women when it comes to business and entrepreneurship.
To provide the tips and techniques in overcoming the obstacles encountered in entrepreneurship and business.
To empower and adjust the mindset regarding women in business.


II. Activities

The Business Forum 2019 started the opening speech, which was presented by Ms. Maria Isabelita C. Manzon-Cabrera. She first introduced our speakers and thanked the President of CamEd Business School, Mr. Casey Barnett, for providing her the opportunity. In her speech, she mentioned about the importance of equality of women and men in businesses, and that the 21st century businesses, women are valued equally to men, and the success is shared while the responsibility between men and women is to make the world a better place. Lastly, she also indicated the three qualities of Women in Business (3Ws), which are Wisdom, Wit, and Warmth. At the end of her speech, Ms. Chheang Kimsuy gave her flowers and certificate.


After the opening speech was ended, our first speaker, H.E. Mam Dathalineth, who is the advisor to the Ministry of Information in Rank of Under Secretary of State, gave a speech under the topic of “WOMEN AND EDUCATION”. During her speech, she had mentioned about the women’ roles which have always been forgotten in the society and another issue is that, most people considered women as white paper, which has raised a believe that women’ role is dependent. After that, her excellency also talked about the struggles that she faced when she was young. Her mother and her grandmother raised her with love, they cherished her and her mother wanted her to get high education, despite the fact that her family was not wealthy at that time. However, her mother had put a lot of effort to help her study get to good schools and it finally paid her off when her excellency graduated and even continued her studying in America. On top of that, her excellency also mentioned about the female ministers who had done their jobs very well in public places in Cambodia. And she also did not forget to encourage every woman to try leaving their safe-zone which could be described by a short phrase “BREAKING THE GLASS CEILING”, and that this could be overcome by being corporated and getting educated. She quoted that Cambodia is now depending on four main factors, which are Garment Industry, Agriculture, Real Estate and Construction, and Hospitality and Tourism. Moreover, she pointed out that “people should look for high income skill, not high income job” and in order to be successful in life, one must have clear lifetime planning, then try to take steps on what he/she has already planned, and she also encourage everyone to build networks. Finally, she shared about the factors that should be taken into account, in case anybody wants to start-up businesses, which are human resource, administration, trading processes and relevant lawsuits.


Next, the stage was given to our second speaker, Ms. Seang Sokcheng, who is the co-founder and blogger of “Wapatoa”, and her sharing was under the topic of “WOMEN AND NETWORKING”. Initially, she started by introducing herself and her website, Wapatoa, which is created by her and another partner of hers. This website posts bilingual contents, videos and pictures relating to self-development and improvement. She said that, the first experience meeting new people during her first start up was a huge challenge. And she also differentiated the terms “extrovert” and “introvert”, that the extrovert person feels actively involved and energetic after meeting new people, while introverts feels like they are out of battery and exhausted. However, she encouraged the introverts to find other ways that are more comfortable and at the same time, creating more networks. According to her speech, there are many ways to build networks, one of which is Stalking. Her experience in this method is that, she went to many events and worked at many places, and during her time working and volunteering, she always stalk people around her, to know who they are, and who their subordinates and bosses are. As a result, they became her target partners or networks, even though they have not known her yet. The second strategy is to get involved in communities or associations, for example, Small World, Impact Hub, Emerald Hub and CWEA etc…. Most communities consists of talented people, and these people will guide or introduce us to their partners or the people who would be interested in our projects. The third way is to make ourselves qualified, can be trusted or depended on, and do the best of us whenever we agree to do something, because everyone around us is our network, if we can prove them that we work with our hearts, they would also recommend us to the people they know. Hence, it is very important to build a good reputation along the journey.

After this, we had a representative from Zourbong came on stage to express her thoughts for the event and followed by Break and Refreshment time.

For the third speaker, Ms. Thaung Thida, the founder of Thaung Enterprise, came to present the topic “WOMEN AND FINANCE”. She mentioned that she came from a farmer community of 20 families who have been producing salt for a very long time. She also emphasised that salt is an ordinary ingredient in everyday life, but in the world for the salt industry, there are only 8% to 10% that produces sea salt. And this industry help contribute to society as well as farmers themselves. The main challenges they have faced so far is that, at the present, they are converting from a small family business who is a supplier in town, to become a company that can export salt overseas, and that financial matters arises. So far, the company has exported to many countries such as Japan, Switzerland and Canada. Born in a farmer-family, she told us that, personally, for the first two years of her start-up, financial is a main problem not only for a start-up like her, but also for an operating company. A question that she was often asked is “Can people do a start-up business when they have no money?”. From her experiences, she indicated that when she first start-up her own business, she also did not have any money because she came from a farmer family, and she had a degree in law which means she did not have any knowledge related to business. And when she started the start-up, she looked for potential or opportunity that whether she could compete with other businesses and created her own business plan. This has led to a change from small family-owned business to an enterprise that produce salt with standards and hygiene, she had to prepare a budget for expenses, register qualified standards and procedures, and many more things she had to take care of. Moreover, she recommended several things relating to financing a business such as saving money, applying for a loan, managing cash flow and availability of cash in case for loan payments, convincing customers for payments which also related to cash flow. Last but not least, she stressed that the last thing that a start-up person should do is to prepare themselves to face all the challenges and not being careless.


The last speaker of our event, H.E. Koung Sorita, who is the advisor of the Ministry of Women’s Affairs in Charge of Economy and Chairwoman of BlurBird British International School, came and presented under the topic of “WOMEN, FAMILY AND BUSINESS”. She said that women and men are equal and compromise one another. Even if that woman is just a housewife, but she has her own values and that she can find a way to make herself a queen in the house. There are four factors that woman can make herself a queen. The first one is education. Women should tell herself that she is able to develop herself, her family, and she is the captain who leads her own family to prosperity. When women get to learn more, she will eventually become smarter and more opportunities are waiting for her. The second factor is ability. Women have to strengthen her ability and believe in herself, only then she is ready to start her own family or business as she wishes. On top of that, the third factor is self confidence. Self confidence is an important factor because without self confidence, a business cannot be operated smoothly. Especially, women need self confidence to overcome all the barriers she faces. Women shall believe in herself and prove what she is able to do in order to gain trust from her partner as well as her surroundings. The last factor is to know how to delegate work. Women in business will find it difficult to maintain the balance between her job and housework, so that she should discuss with her family, negotiate to share housework or find someone to help. From our speaker’s experience, she has a nanny who can help with cooking and taking care of her children. Last but not least, she added a few points such as men and women should appreciate the value of each other, a business should start with a plan, and we should learn to say NO to opportunity that is not useful.

As the speech of our last speaker had finished, we had a great honor to have Ms. Visothyda Ung (VIS) to perform two songs for our audiences. And right after the performance, we had a Panel Discussion session which had Mr. Thai Vantha (Jerry Thai) as our moderator. In this session, our honorable guest speakers and moderator discussed about our guest speakers’ experiences and how they could manage their roles as women in business. On top of that, our audiences also raised a few questions to our guest speakers. After that, our representatives came to present gifts from our sponsors and our guest speakers as well as our moderator. For the next session, we had a representative of An Cha Taiwan Milk Tea, which is our Diamond sponsor, came on stage to express her opinion on the event. Then, we had a lucky draw session and ended our event with a closing remark by our project chair, Ms. Lao Lissa, to express her sincerity to our guest speakers, audiences and sponsors.

III. Sponsorship

This event could be held successfully, we also do not forget to thank our following support and contributions from:

* Support:
We would like to express our gratitude toward our supporting partner, CamEd Business School, which sponsored a lot of materials as well as cash in order to execute our event.

* Diamond Sponsors:
Big thanks to An Cha Taiwan Milk Tea and Zando Cambodia for their sponsorship as our Diamond sponsors by providing us plenty of cash to support the event.

* Exclusive Transportation Partner:
Big thanks to Grab Cambodia for providing exclusive transportation services to our participants, guest speakers and organizers on our event day.

* Gold Sponsors:
We would like to say thank you to:
Zourbong for sponsoring cash to support our event
NX Bake House which offered delicious refreshment on our event day
Co-Creative Corner which has offered vouchers to our participants

* Silver Sponsors:
We also do not forget to thank:
Phzar.com (Camazoon) which has offered cash and merchandise for the event
GooKindle Cambodia which has sponsored a brand new ALITA LIKEBOOK as gift to our winner on Facebook challenge

* In-Kind Sponsors:
We are grateful to have sponsors from:
Sota Professional Company Limited which sponsored us in cash
Cam-paint for their sponsor in term cash
ICE Watch for providing a beautiful watch for lucky draw
Cakolate Bakery and Coffee for your delicious cookies to support our organizers
Brilliant Advertising for producing lovely Eco-Bag and paper box for our event
Ten11 which had provided financial support to our event

* Exclusive Beverage Partner:
Thanks to Coca Cola Company for offering water and beverages on the event day.

* Media Sponsors:
We also would like to thank Sabay, Ahladang, Millionaire Idea, BizKhmer, WeDuShare, TisCount for providing special articles for event advertisement on social media.

IV. Conclusion

Afterall, The Business Forum 2019 was successfully achieved, we would like to pay our respects for kindly support as well as contributions and gratitude to :

Firstly, our guest speakers, H.E. Mam Dathalineth (Nicole), Ms. Seang Sokcheng, Ms. Thaung Thyda, and H.E. Koung Sorita who gave us a great honor to voluntarily attended and wholeheartedly shared many tips and techniques in overcoming the struggles encountered in entrepreneurship and business, especially for our Cambodian women.

Secondly, our support from CamEd Business School, and all our sponsors: An Cha Taiwan Milktea, Zando, Grab Cambodia, Zourbong, NX Bake House, Co-Creative Corner, Phzar.com (Camazoon), GooKindle Cambodia, Sota Professional Company Limited, Cam-paint, ICE Watch, Cakolate Bakery and Coffee, Brilliant Advertise, Ten11, Coca Cola Company, Sabay, Ahladang, Millionaire Idea, BizKhmer, WeDuShare and TisCount for warm-hearted supporting and sponsoring our Business Forum 2019.

Thirdly, all the participants for being part of our event.

Lastly, all organizers for hard working and made this project happened.

Without all of your support, attending, contribution and sponsoring, our Business Forum 2019 would be impossible to come to existence. We hope to see you guys again in our next events.