International President of International Federation of Business and Professional Women (BPW International), Dr. Chonchanok Viravan, is proud to announce that the XXVI BPW International Congress will be held in Mexico City on 24-28 October 2008 at Gran Melia Mexico Reforma Hotel. The theme of the Congress is “Power to Make a Difference”. President of BPW Mexico, Fabiola Kun and Chair of Host Planning Committee, Josefina Peralta are leading the team to prepare this event and to give a warm welcome to business and professional women from 82 member countries of BPW International.

The Congress theme “Power to Make a Difference” recognizes women contribution through leadership, action and advocacy. The workshops part of the Congress will also be opened to interest business and professional women in Mexico to attend.

* Track I - Making a Difference through Leadership: Workshops in this track will address leadership development both at individual and organization level such as creative marketing strategy, win-win negotiation skill, business incubation, conflict resolution strategy, performance evaluation, success from conquering defeat, Talent development for women executives, etc.
* Track II - Making a Difference through Action: Workshops in this track will address success cases and successful strategies to enable women to gain economic independence and advance their careers, based on work of BPW affiliates which helped over 60,000 women to help themselves during 1996-2007. Highlight on some of the topics include financing gender equality projects, skill trainings, micro-credits, mentoring, using e-Business and other information and communication technology (ICT) to enhance opportunities for women, etc.
* Track III - Making a Difference through Advocacy: Workshops in this track will address emerging issues for women in the 21st Century that still needs to be addressed in order for women to overcome the obstacles, achieve their full professional and career potential and attain “equal participations of women and men in power and decision making”. The highlights on some of the issues are gender pay gap, work-life balance, violence against women, International migration, Ageing population and economic impact on women, Return on investment when women became top executives, etc.

International winners of "Lena Madesin Phillips Award" and "BPW Power to Make a Difference Awards" on Excellent Business Leader, Excellent Professional Leader, Excellent young leader, Excellent Advocacy for Women and Excellent projects, along with other distinguished speakers from Mexico and from all over the world will be speaking at these panels and workshops.