Female entrepreneurs and budding businesswomen from across Cork City are being encouraged to look to the future and register for this year’s National Women’s Enterprise Day (NWED) after the line-up for the event was announced. The Local Enterprise Office (LEO) initiative, now in its 15th year, will be hosted by founder and broadcaster Aine Kerr.
Traditionally National Women’s Enterprise Day has taken place locally with LEOs Cork & Kerry putting on events for female businesswomen in the South West and those who may have a business idea they want to get off the ground. However, the event went online in 2020 due to restrictions and will take place online again this year.
The FREE event, titled “Build The Future”, takes place online on the 7th October and will feature some of Ireland’s best known female entrepreneurs including Aimee Connolly of Sculpted by Aimee, Rachel Doyle of The Arboretum and Sharon Keegan of Peachy Lean, who was recently supported on Dragon’s Den UK.
Each Local Enterprise Office across the country has nominated its own ‘Leading Light’ who will be involved in the promotion of National Women’s Enterprise Day. These entrepreneurs have demonstrated innovation, resilience, courage and leadership as the pandemic continued this year. LEO Cork City is delighted to have Margaret Urbanowicz of SÓMASwww.somasstudio.com as its Leading Light.
The NWED programme will cover a whole host of areas on how to build the future of a business covering topics like, how to get started, internationalization, finding new markets, trading effectively online, sustainability and innovation. This will be coupled with breakout rooms for networking and a host of one-to-one advice clinics for any business issues.
New figures released by the Local Enterprise Offices, who are funded by the Government of Ireland and supported by Enterprise Ireland and the Local Authorities, have shown that the amount of women engaging in entrepreneurship and business supports continues to rise.
In 2020 over 47,000 women engaged in training and upskilling with their Local Enterprise Office. This was a huge jump on 2019 as 23,466 female entrepreneurs took part in training that year. In 2020, 50% more females engaged in training and upskilling with their Local Enterprise Office than their male counterparts (30,000).
Ann Doherty, Chief Executive, Cork City Council said: “National Women’s Enterprise Day has always been a day of celebration of the very best in female entrepreneurship and highlighting the strength of that community. This year is no different, and we are very much looking forward to how can we help female entrepreneurs in Cork City sustain and develop their businesses and ideas going into the future.
Paul McGuirk, LEO Cork City added: “The last 18 months have created huge problems for businesses all across the city but also great opportunities and businesses have to grasp those. NWED is going to look at all those areas where you can build your business for the future, what areas you need to look at and what supports are there to help you do that. Everyone who registers and attends on the day will not only spend it with a fantastic community of female entrepreneurs and experts from around the country, but they will learn how to build their business or business idea for the future.”
Other participants on the day include Gerry Duffy who will be conducting an energizing session, Jenny Melia and Sheelagh Daly from Enterprise Ireland on Internationalisation and New Markets, Entrepreneurs Academy’s Noel Davidson on creating connections, Designer Aoife McNamara on starting a business and a host of others covering all sorts of topics from finance to trading online.
Those looking to attend National Women’s Enterprise Day can find more information and register for free here and join the conversation online using the hashtag #NWED.
