This year the Bangladesh Brand Forum initiated the three-day long Woman in Leadership (WIL) fest 2018 with the theme, "Owning & Visibility" on March 8-10 at the Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy, sponsored by Freedom Sanitary Napkin.

The inauguration of the fest started off with a welcome speech from Liaquat Ali Lucky; Director General of Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy. Dr. Anisuzzaman, Professor Emeritus, at Dhaka University was invited as the chief guest; in his speech he mentioned that every woman has the right to live her life on her own terms and no one else's. Other speakers at the initiation ceremony included, Syed Alamgir, Managing Director of ACI Limited who proudly exclaimed that his respect for women lies in the fact that he was, in his own words a "Mummy's boy." Nazia Andaleeb Preema, President of Woman in Leadership felt that the celebration of womanhood should not be restricted to just one day but rather be acknowledged in every facet of life.

The band Guddi performed their original single,"Naari" dedicating it to all the women present at the ceremony.

In total, for the first two days they had a handful of discussions, start up talks and training sessions related to the fields of media and social issues to name a few. Another side to the fest showcased an art exhibition that documented the struggles and successes women have achieved through photography, visual art and clothing; there were also live art workshops, performance acts and musical performances.

Noted guest speakers in the WIL discussions included, Shariful Islam, Samrine Bokhari, Monoshita Ayruani, Elita Karim, Nazim Farhan Chowdhury, Tanvir Haider, Zeeshan Kingshuk, Fahima Chowdhury, Khaled Mahmoud, Piplu R. Khan Solaiman Alam and others. Real life couples, Zara Mahbub-Naveed Mahbub and Deneb Zeenat Latif-Solaiman Alam took part in a session titled, "Power Couples Growing Together."

On the second day of the fest, noted global keynote speakers took the stage during the Women Leadership Summit. Ambassador of Norway, HE Sidsel Bleken; Ambassador of Denmark, HE Mikael Hemniti Winther and Ambassador of France, Marie-Annick Bourdin engaged in interactive panel discussions on the subject of unification of women's voices and establishing a platform for the challenges and issues women face in leadership that was facilitated by Shariful Islam

The festival also highlighted startups that help women to venture out as entrepreneurs or provide women-centric services. Speakers included, Mashraka Binta Mosharraf, CEO of Creative Connections , founder of Begum.co,  Farha Naz Zaman, head of digital marketing at Grameenphone Limited and Rakhshanda Rukham, lead of Google Women Techmakers Bangladesh to name a few.

School of Slow Media (SOSM) conducted a workshop on storytelling skills and creative development by demonstrating the cooperation between roughly 30 participants and strangers from foreign cultures under the media production umbrella.

This year's WIL fest also included an innovative campaign that encouraged the participation of universities and creative agencies to present their ideas on the societal concepts of "Women Empowerment" and "Female Biasness." The best two would be awarded with the Inspiring Women Award, 2018.

In all, the festival highlighted the tools, opportunities and insights required for women to be more empowered, confident about the integral roles they play in society as a whole.