Lei Wa Lakom’s inaugural conference opens at Grand Hyatt Kuwait on 17 October, bringing banking, investment, technology and behavioural finance into a discussion about women’s economic contribution.
Kuwait will host the first Women & the Economy conference on 17–18 October, with a programme spanning leadership, artificial intelligence, financial decision-making and the opportunities facing the next generation. Organised by Lei Wa Lakom, the event opens at Grand Hyatt Kuwait before a second day of specialist discussions and a university conversation.
The conference is being held under the patronage of Abdulaziz Nasser Al-Marzouq, Minister of State for Economic Affairs and Investment. Its opening day will be open to the public, according to the announcement published on 7 October, with policymakers, business leaders, investors and academics taking part.
For host and Lei Wa Lakom founder Taiba Hamad Al-Humaidhi, the central question is how women’s participation connects to wider economic contribution. The agenda brings that question into specific settings: the workplace, investment decisions, digital banking and the financial choices young people will make as they enter adult life.
Banking, investment and technology share the agenda
The morning programme pairs an Arabic discussion of current realities with an English panel on the future of women in the economy. The first examines women’s participation through the experience of policymakers, economists and private-sector leaders. The second turns to artificial intelligence, financial technology and policy, moderated by British Ambassador to Kuwait Qudsi Rasheed.
The published speaker lineup includes Badria Hamad Al-Humaidhi of Boubyan Capital, Henadi Al-Saleh of Agility, Amal Al-Duwaisan of Weyay Bank and J.P. Morgan Private Bank investment strategist Kriti Gupta. It also brings in experience from Kuwait Finance House, Kuwait Investment Company and IKEA Kuwait.
Those different professional perspectives give the programme several points of entry. Investment sits alongside human resources, while digital banking and retail technology sit alongside corporate leadership. The discussion is consequently broader than one profession or one route into business, with speakers drawn from organisations that employ, finance and serve people across different parts of the economy.
Why financial knowledge is only part of the story
The financial-literacy theme builds on work Lei Wa Lakom has been developing with young people in Kuwait. In a June account of its research, the organisation said its work on a locally tailored questionnaire involved more than 1,000 people aged 18–25. The aim was to establish a way of measuring financial literacy that reflected the Kuwaiti context.
The same account described university workshops using surveys before and after sessions to examine students’ knowledge and responses to the material. Al-Humaidhi presented that work at a behavioural transformations workshop hosted by King’s College London’s School for Government in collaboration with the LSE Behavioural Lab.
Lei Wa Lakom’s account also identified a distinction between understanding a financial principle and acting on it. It described further work exploring whether reminders, accountability and other behavioural tools can support everyday decisions. That remains a research direction, rather than evidence that a particular intervention has already changed financial habits across Kuwait.
The conference’s inclusion of behavioural finance extends this question. Greg B. Davies of Oxford Risk is scheduled to present, bringing a field concerned with how people actually make decisions into a programme that also addresses institutions and economic policy.
In an earlier interview published by Oxford Risk, Davies argued that financial choices need to be understood within a person’s wider circumstances. Increasing savings in a particular account, for example, cannot be assessed fully without considering where the money came from and its other possible uses. The point offers useful context for a conference connecting financial education with decisions beyond the classroom.
Workshops move into practical questions
The afternoon programme includes workshops on AI agents, personal financial health, and AI and cybersecurity, delivered in partnership with KAFO. The published trainer list includes Ahmed Aloun, Ghalia Mubarak Al-Nuwaief and Hafsah Almuhanna, covering technical adoption, budgeting and financial management, and digital security respectively. The programme places these workshops after the main panels, allowing for a separate, more focused afternoon session.
These sessions follow presentations from Kuwait University’s Nourah Shuaibi and Davies, alongside a scheduled National Bank of Kuwait project announcement. The project’s inclusion is an item on the programme; its details should come from the announcement itself when it is made.
Younger participants also have a dedicated place in the schedule. An evening youth and children’s conference, organised with the Sabah Al-Ahmad Centre for Giftedness and Creativity, is intended to bring them into discussions about future economic opportunities. It adds an intergenerational element to a day otherwise led largely by established professionals.
A second day focused on contribution and next steps
The second day includes a closed roundtable on turning women’s participation into economic contribution. According to the detailed conference announcement, it will take place at the Kuwait Chamber of Commerce and Industry in cooperation with the Union of Investment Companies. A separate discussion with students is planned at Kuwait University.
The organisers intend to publish the roundtable’s outcomes in a report after the event. That creates a specific follow-up to the opening discussions: the recommendations released, the institutions involved and the actions proposed will become the next part of the story.
For members of the public, the immediate date is 17 October at Grand Hyatt Kuwait. Registration and the latest programme are available through Lei Wa Lakom’s conference page, with the second day’s specialist sessions operating separately from the public opening programme.
