International Women in Business Talent Fair 2023 hosted by Uniper

Uniper will once again provide the venue for the International Women in Business Düsseldorf (IWIBDus) annual Talent Fair in September. IWIBDus is a non-profit organization, supporting internationally-minded women from all backgrounds living in or around Düsseldorf and looking to use their knowledge and experience.

The Talent Fair is one of their signature events and highlights diverse female talent from a variety of fields and industries. During the event, ten to twelve women from the IWIBDus network present themselves, their talents, and talk about what they are looking for in a TED-Talk style format. After the presentations, there is a large chunk of time dedicated to networking and connecting with others.

Due to gaps in their resume, many of these women are often not considered in application processes. However, the reality is that their experience of moving to a foreign country makes them even more interesting, understanding of cultural differences, and able to manage complex projects.

IWIBDus, and the Talent Fair in particular, give the presenters a platform to explain their story and prove their capability. Representatives and recruiters from companies from all over the Düsseldorf area are in the audience and will have a chance to speak about opportunities with the women who presented themselves as well as other IWIBDus members.

After the first Talent Fair, eight of the twelve women presenting themselves on stage had jobs within three months – a huge success. “These women have unusual CVs, which doesn’t mean that they are not incredibly talented or unable to work. Fixing problems is their experience in life. But because they had no network, their talents weren’t being utilized within Düsseldorf until now,” says Katy Kennedy, founder of International Women in Business Düsseldorf. In fact, Katy recently joined Uniper as Vice President Digital Solutions.

Uniper has also gained other new talents from this event and the IWIBDüs network as well. Another recent example is Kriszta Tatrai, a speaker at the last event and now part of our Commercial Operations team.

This year’s Talent Fair takes place for the fourth time on Thursday 21^st September and has been hosted by Uniper from the beginning. “Having the Uniper brand associated with it was very important because it shows that large, English-speaking international organizations in Düsseldorf are interested in the event and want to be part of it. Because Uniper was a part of it, other companies followed,” Katy explains.