On 7-8 March, the We Convention conference will be held in Dubai. It is dedicated to women’s leadership, and will consist of “eye-opening and thought-provoking discussions and stories of women who have achieved their goals.” The list of speakers is dominated by Russian celebrities, entrepreneurs, media specialists, and also includes Maye Musk.

  • We Convention event is organized by Women’s Empowerment Council, an organization, founded and headed by Russian entrepreneur Mila Smart Semeshkina, CEO at Miami-based edtech Lectera with offices in Moscow and Dubai.
  • The agenda includes a lot of panels, and each is dominated by Russian celebrities and entrepreneurs. In particular, founder and CEO of Russian marketplace Wildberries Tatyana Bakalchuk — both were sanctioned by Ukrainian President as the company sold Russian military uniform and Putin’s portraits, publisher of Marie Claire Russian Aliona Tkach, actress and film director Renata Litvinova, Natalia Vodianova, and others are among the speakers.
  • The event’s headliner is Maye Musk, who will deliver a speech, which is called Never Too Late: Maye Musk’s Story That Inspires Change at Any Age, in a panel moderated by Mila Smart Semeshkina.
  • Maye Musk’s participation in We Convention conference looks like a controversial and incomprehensible decision, considering the fact that she has expressed their admiration for the courage of Ukrainians and called for donations to support the Ukrainian army on her Twitter right back in April.
  • Worth mentioning that a few days ago, Elon Musk, commenting on a 2014 article by American scholar John Mearsheimer, called the Revolution of Dignity in Ukraine in 2013-2014 a coup d’état. To clarify, it is a rhetoric of the Russian government. In response, Ukrainian authorities recommended Musk stop reading Russian newspapers.

Why is it important

Undoubtedly, the topic of women in business, women’s leadership, and empowerment is highly important nowadays. But we need to consider the context. Because of the war that Russia launched in Ukraine, a lot of Ukrainian women have lost their businesses, someone won’t be able to develop new projects as their business partners, or they were killed by Russians.

We don’t know what Russian participants of We Convention conference think about those issues Ukrainian female entrepreneurs are faced with right now. They didn’t make any public statements about the war. Considering the broader picture — women will share success stories of Russia-based businesses, including sanctioned ones, during the event — Dubai-based We Convention is far from being both inspirational and encouraging. And it is still unclear, why Maye Musk agreed to join it.