“International Women’s Day 2015: Celebration, Connection and Inspiration for Women in Business in Dublin”

Kindly sponsored by Vodafone

Thursday 5^th March 2015, Davenport Hotel, Dublin 2  

Women In Business networks from the Local Enterprise Offices in Dublin City, Fingal, Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown and South Dublin and the Dublin Chamber of Commerce are joining forces for the sixth consecutive year to organise a major event for women in business in Dublin to celebrate International Women’s Day.  Over 200 female entrepreneurs and business women have attended in previous years, making this an outstanding networking opportunity.

This year’s event will feature talks by Mary McKenna, Founder and MD of Tour America and Anne Sheehan, Enterprise Director, Vodafone, and presentations from a panel of three inspirational entrepreneurs: Mouna Kenzaoui, Martinsen Mayer, Cristina Luminea, ThoughtBox and Georgia Scott, Georgia in Dublin.

The Master of Ceremonies will be Barbara Moynihan of On Your Feet.

This event is restricted to members only because of the high demand for places from all participating networks.    Please email leodcwomeninbusiness@gmail.com for more information.

SPEAKER OVERVIEWS

Mary McKenna, Managing Director, Tour America

Mary McKenna has been working in the travel sector for almost 30 years. Having gained valuable experience in both the airline and travel agency business Mary decided in 1995 it was time to make a go of it herself setting up Tour America from home with a team of 3.   Tour America has continued to buck the trend by growing throughout the recession now employing over 50 people in Dublin and Cork with a turnover of over €20 million. Constantly innovating, Tour America recently launched Magic Holidays and Honeymoon Finders. The company also operates Cruise Holidays, which is the largest company selling cruises in Ireland, and was set up following 9/11. 

Mary takes time out of her busy work schedule to mentor other female entrepreneurs in the Going for Growth programme developed by Enterprise Ireland. Mary is also the only female coach in OBRFC training the U7’s team, and is a huge supporter of her local Platinum Pilates Studio in Rathmines.   Mary was delighted to win the “Deloitte Best Managed Company Gold Award again in 2014, for the 5th year in a row. Tour America has many awards including the following in the last 12 months: Blue Insurance ‘Tour Operator of the Year’ Award; voted by the Irish media, Bord Gais ‘Social Media’ Award and Brand USA ‘Tour Operator of the Year’ Award MSC Top Performer of the Year

Anne Sheehan, Enterprise Director, Vodafone

Anne is Enterprise Director at Vodafone Ireland. She has 16 years of experience in the ICT industry and has responsibility for Vodafone’s business customers and business channels. She joined the company from IBM where she was vice president of sales for the Nordic region. Prior to this, she was sales director for IBM Ireland. Named among WXN’s top 25 women in business in 2012, Anne is active in a number of business industry groups.   A native of Clare, she has a degree in business studies, specialising in accounting and finance, and a graduate diploma in computers, both from the University of Limerick.

Mouna Kenzaoui, Martinsen Mayer

Mouna Kenzaoui is a successful entrepreneur who recently set up Martinsen Mayer, a technology recruitment agency in Dublin.  With over ten years’ experience in the national and international recruitment industry, Mouna has deep insight and understanding into what it takes to help her clients win the talent war, while also working with individual candidates to help them find their perfect role.  Prior to setting up Martinsen Mayer, Mouna held senior management positions in a number of leading recruitment companies including Grafton Employment Group, Manpower, and Premier Group (now Morgan McKinley). 

In 2010, Mouna was responsible for setting up JobFit, a programme sponsored by the Labour Market Activation Fund from the Department of Education & Skills, which engaged with long term unemployed young adults to provide work placements and further education opportunities in eight centres across Ireland. She spends a lot of a spare time doing charity work and has recently signed up to cycle from San Sebastian to Barcelona through the Chamber of Commerce to raise funds for the Peter McVerry Trust.

Cristina Luminea, ThoughtBox

Cristina is the founder and CEO of ThoughtBox, an award winning company using technology and Gameful Learning to develop educational experiences which engage young audiences. She has currently launched EuropeanPioneers, an Europe wide incubator looking to support 25 companies over the next 2 years. Previously she was part of the New Ventures & Innovation Group in Houghton Mifflin Harcourt in charge of R&D. Cristina has two Honours degrees in Software Development, a Bachelor degree in International Marketing and a Research Master Degree in Engineering.

In 2014 she was featured by Silicon Republic in Women Invent: 100 top women in science, technology, engineering and maths and by the Independent in Top 30 under 30: The brightest young entrepreneurs who are putting ideas to work (2013).

Georgia Scott, Georgia in Dublin

Georgia Scott is Director of Georgia in Dublin, a mother & daughter company designing elegant rainwear for women (although they also design increasingly for men! ). Their range of stylish multifunctional coats, jackets and accessories were designed with the casual cyclist in mind but are also aimed to suit women's daily lifestyles whether they cycle or not. They won an iF International Design Award for design innovation and production quality in 2011 and a Brand New Award in Munich in 2011 for the GinD range. They were also voted Cycling Visionaries at Velocity in Vienna in 2013.

Barbara Moynihan, On Your Feet

Barbara Moynihan www.onyourfeet.ie. Barbara will act as facilitator and master of ceremonies again at this year's event.  Barbara is a leading facilitator and coach in the area of presentation and pitching skills.  In 2010 she founded “On Your Feet”, where she works with a wide range of corporate, SME and individual clients helping them to get on  their feet and get their message across with impact.  Her clients range from a TD to start-ups to blue chip organisations in the financial and IT sector.  Prior to setting up On Your Feet, she spent 10 years working with Dale Carnegie, an International Training organization, where she specialized in Presentation Skills training in Ireland and mainland Europe.

She also a speaks at events on topics including How not to Lose Friends and Alienate People, Pimp your Pitch and How to Present Like a Pro.  Barbara also regularly performs the role of Master of Ceremonies (MC), including the Small Firms Association (SFA) Annual Lunch with over 600 in attendance, the Annual Conference of AIPCO (Association of Irish Professional Conference Organisers and the Envirocom Awards.  She was the Network Dublin Self Employed Business Woman of the year in 2014.