The conference was the fifth event in a series of annual conferences on Women Contribution to Innovation and Creativity. Innovation and women's empowerment are rarely discussed in the same context but each has essential value for human progress. This series aims at discussing various aspects of innovation and creativity and their impact on the improvement of women's well-being, empowering women and advance in gender equality.
The 2012 edition, similarly as in 2011, featured presentations concerning designs in innovative economy. In addition to the request made by the participants of the previous edition, this topic has been identified as an emerging field in which an encouraging sign of progress in women involvement is seen. This is mainly thanks to the changes in industry itself, which is taking a more holistic view of products that includes everyone from ethnographers to experience designers and is evolving in a way that might be more appealing to women. This conference focused on the increasing exposure of women to design- based industries and addressed, among others, the following objectives:
- Promotion of innovation, creativity and intellectual property (IP) as a power tool for economic development amongst women;
- Promotion of the innovative and creative work of women in science and business;
- Raising awareness among the targeted group on IP-related issues and industrial designs in particular;
- Promotion of an active use of the IP system, in particular the Hague system for the protection of industrial designs.
Mrs. Binying Wang, Deputy Director General, Brands and Design Sector, attended the conference on behalf of WIPO.
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