Diana Impact Day

2026 Diana International Research Institute’s Impact Day

Women’s entrepreneurship is limitless and should know no boundaries.

This June, the Diana International Research Conference comes to South Africa for the first time, hosted at the Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) in Johannesburg from 26-29 June 2026.

Transforming Futures: Women and Social Entrepreneurship in a Digital Age

We warmly invite you to join us on the final day, June 29, for Impact Day, where the conference moves beyond the academy and into action. This is the day researchers, investors, policymakers, ecosystem builders, and women entrepreneurs come together to turn rigorous evidence into real change — practical solutions for financing, supporting, and growing women-led businesses across our communities and beyond.

Whether you fund, study, build, or champion women's entrepreneurship, there's a seat for you at the table. Come be part of the conversation that shapes what comes next.

It is estimated that women enter entrepreneurship at 80% the rate of men, yet women who run and own established businesses is significantly lower at 68% (2022/23 GEM Women’s Report). Whilst the boundaries enabling start-up may have shifted to facilitate greater parity for women entrepreneurs, there still remain limits within entrepreneurial ecosystems on their capacity to survive, thrive and experience full inclusiveness.

Second, our pre-occupation with researching gender and entrepreneurship, despite recent attention afforded to intersectionality (Marlow & Martinez Dy, 2018) has remained somewhat mainstream, Westernized and ‘safe.’ Understanding how gender and entrepreneurship is enacted on peripheries, within diverse communities and rich cultures and by people (women, transgender, non-binary) who not fit traditional stereotypes can offer much promise for developing this field.

We Expect Three Outcomes:

1. Multi-stakeholder Dialogue

A targeted convening of ecosystem actors to exchange evidence-informed practices, identify priority areas for future research, and assess implications for entrepreneurship policy and program development.

2. Collaborative Ideation

Structured interactive sessions to facilitate knowledge-sharing across sectors and geographies, with the aim of generating practical solutions to advance women’s entrepreneurial participation.

3. Strategic Insights for Future Engagement

Synthesis of key takeaways to inform the thematic focus of upcoming global roundtables, ensuring continued relevance and alignment with emerging trends and stakeholder needs.