I spoke with the U.S. Ambassador Alexa Wesner and entrepreneur Selma Prodanovic on a panel on women entrepreneurs and what steps need to be taken to improve the number of women entrepreneurs, their success rate, and challenges and opportunities they face. The audience was interactive and asked how to change the culture of Austria and changes in government policies that are necessary for this to occur. Progress in certain industrial segments that are ripe for entrepreneurs, including social entrepreneurship ventures, was discussed.The program was attended by approximately 200 people. I am now in the process of analyzing the data from the study I conducted on women entrepreneurs from all over Austria and Slovakia and hope to share the results with the U.S. Embassy, the Fulbright Program, government entities, and the press.

Dr. Dianne H.B. Welsh is the Hayes Distinguished Professor of Entrepreneurship at The University of North Carolina Greensboro and was a US Fulbright Scholar in 2014–15 in Vienna, Austria where she held the Fulbright-Hall Distinguished Chair for Entrepreneurship in Central Europe at the WU Wien. Photo courtesy of Dr. Dianne H.B. Welsh.