The Swedish Women Abroad‘s Bangkok chapter has launched SWEA Professional. This was announced with a kick-off event on 15 November.
Swea met at Hotel Pullman Grande Sukhumvit and after a nice networking, including a presentation by the organisation and Swea Professional they divided the attendants into smaller groups to brainstorm.
Anna Frummerin, President Swea Bangkok and Birgitta Leveen, Vice President and Cashier told ScandAsia that its purpose is that all members who are curious about business and interested in career and professional issues should be able to meet and exchange experiences and ideas.
“At our start-up meeting, we discussed a lot of the needs and interests of the group and based on those discussions and an individual survey, we have now put a preliminary program for 2018 consisting of a mix of: visits to each other’s workplaces; after work with theme discussions; and invited guest lecturers from the industry, academia and the media to talk about current issues.”
“Swea Professional was launched in San Francisco in 2010 and is available in many places around the world and is being launched every year in different parts of the world. In Asia, we have started up this in Bangkok and Singapore,” they continued.
“Swea Professional is a part of Swea and open to all members, regardless of whether you are currently working or not. The most important thing is that you are interested in working life and occupational issues.”
On the differentiation compared the Thai-Swedish Chamber of Commerce they replied: “We see our role as a good partner to the chamber of commerce. Its target group is the companies and we focus on individuals – to support and lift women in the workplace and create interest and curiosity for working life and career issues, etc.”
Concerning activities they have proceeded: “We have just had our second meeting where we visited Anna Karlin Norling at the Swedish Embassy in Bangkok (First Secretary Senior Research Advisor – Environment and Natural Resources), who told us about SIDA’s operations in Asia. We will also visit Niklas Blomqvist at Pecunia who will give tips on how we can get better at planning our economy.”
“We already have ideas about activities throughout 2018, but are open to new ideas based on our members’ needs and interests. We have many successful women in the organisation who are willing to contribute.”
Anna and Birgitta also confirmed that the number of entrepreneurs/professionals in Swea have increased in recent years and will continue to increase. “We already have many active and successful entrepreneurs in SWEA Bangkok and of course we want to encourage others to dare to start ventures. Together we have a good network of contacts in Bangkok.”
Those interested can stay informed via ScandAsia’s calendar of events as well as via Swea’s activities news distribution.
Photo: camilladavidsson.com
