DIRI Events

Established in 1999 by five founding scholars, the Diana International Research Conference is the premier international research conference on women’s entrepreneurship, gathering the collaborative network of researchers studying women’s entrepreneurship from more than 60 countries. Moving to a new global location each year, over 100 scholars from around the world join this annual forum to share global research dedicated to asking and answering questions about women entrepreneurs and how they grow their ventures.

The Diana International Research Institute Impact Day is the first global convening of researchers, educators, investors, policymakers, women entrepreneurs, and other disrupters who are dedicated to advancing women's entrepreneurship through the collective discussion of the unique challenges that these founders are facing. The theme for the inaugural 2019 Impact Day was Catalyzing New Models and Innovations for Financing Women Entrepreneurs where 215+ stakeholders from 14 states and eight countries came together to collectively explore practical solutions, develop best practices in acceleration and funding, and generate needed policy solutions to leverage one of the largest economic opportunities of our time. The day led to the Diana International Impact Report January 2020 (pdf) calling for new models of funding for entrepreneurial women and documentation of the continued disparity in funding by gender.