One-to-one mentoring clinics and exhibitors offering enterprise support and advice
Thursday, November 17th, is National Women’s Enterprise Day with the 35 County and City Enterprise Boards co-hosting a major conference, day-long mentoring clinics and an enterprise support exhibition in Laois for hundreds of female entrepreneurs that day.
Women in will be offered one-to-one mentoring appointments with a choice of fourteen experienced business people and access to a full exhibition display area offering support, information and advice.
Speaking ahead of the November 17th conference, Eamon Ryan, Chair of NWED Organising Committee, County and City Enterprise Boards, said: "On National Women’s Enterprise Day, we’d encourage as many of the female entrepreneurs as possible to take up the offer of mentoring appointments. Through mentoring, they can seek advice and guidance from more experienced businesspeople around issues such as business planning, marketing, social media and finance."
The panel of experienced mentors on National Women’s Enterprise Day includes Fiona Brown Johnson (Human Resources), John Clarke (eCommerce, Export, Information Design and Marketing), Ron Connell (Sales, Marketing, Finance and IT), Margaret Daly (Business Start-up and Human Resources), Noel Davidson (IT and Communications), Bernadette Farrell O’Neill (Finance, Business Start-up and Development), Bríd Fox (Food Marketing and Business Training) and Sandra Hennessy (Digital Marketing).
Gillian Horan (Marketing), Elaine Hyland (Finance), Rob Marr (Business Development, Management Development, Sales and Marketing), Caitriona Montgomery (Digital Marketing and Website Development), Theresa Mulvihill (Marketing and Business Development) and finally, Evan Mangan (Digital Marketing) are also experienced mentors on this year’s panel.
The exhibition display area at National Women’s Enterprise Day features information stands from the County and City Enterprise Boards, Enterprise Ireland, InterTradeIreland, Bord Bia, First Step, HALO Business Angels, Dublin Business Innovation Centre, Irish Franchise Association, Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement and the Health and Safety Authority.
Entrepreneur, author and rower, Debra Searle, MBE, is one of the keynote speakers at the conference, along with food entrepreneur and founder of Itsa Bagel, Domini Kemp. The Minister of State for Social Protection, Joan Burton, T.D., will officially open the conference the evening before and the success stories of eight emerging and established female entrepreneurs will also be highlighted.
National Women’s Enterprise Day is taking place at the Heritage Hotel in Portlaoise and subsidised tickets cost €100, which are available through www.nwed.ie. The fee includes a half-day conference on November 16th with refreshments, in addition to the full day conference and lunch on November 17th. Updates are available on the National Women’s Enterprise Day Facebook and Twitter pages, using Twitter tag #NWED.
Co-funded by the European Social Fund and the Irish Exchequer, the aim of National Women’s Enterprise Day is to give national recognition to the role of female entrepreneurship in Ireland.