National Women’s Enterprise Day 2022 - Meet Our Panellists

The theme of this years #NWED event is ‘Our Future, Our Way’ and is supported by Waterford Chamber, Waterford Micro Business Network and Network Waterford and is just one of a number of events being held nationally on October 13th to mark National Women’s Enterprise Day.

This year we are delighted to have Teresanne O’Reilly as our MC. Teresanne previously worked in WLR as Head of Digital and is now the owner of The Forest which builds websites and develops successful brand strategies for small and medium sized businesses. 

Meet The Panel

Our Leading Light for the event is Frances O’Reilly of Dog Dry.  Frances developed drying coats for dogs using an innovative design and was established in February 2021.  The product has been awarded for innovation by the Design and Crafts Council of Ireland and Frances became an Enterprise Ireland client within a year of start-up.    

Kamila Bystrzonowska

Kamila moved from Poland 2004 after graduating in Oligophrenopedagogy (master’s degree) in Krakow. After working in pubs and restaurants in Waterford for nearly 8 years she opened Momo Restaurant in 2014.

Momo has received numerous awards since opening, including Best Casual Dining, Best Customer Service, Best Emerging Irish Cuisine, and Kamila herself has won Best Restaurant Manager.  In 2023 they were awarded Local Food Hero in Waterford County.   Kamila is a wife, mother of two and loves good food, chats and cooking.

Karen Tompkins

Karen has over 15 years of radio broadcasting experience as a news journalist, documentary-maker, producer, contributor at local (WLRfm, South East Radio) and national level (RTE Junior Radio, RTE Radio One, Newstalk and Today FM). 

Karen won the 2020 and 2021 Gold IMRO Radio Award for her audio story series for children on WLRfm Big Breakfast Little Stories and is shortlisted again in two categories at the 2022 IMRO Awards.

The same series, Big Breakfast Little Stories, was awarded a Finalist Diploma at the New York Festivals Radio Awards 2022.

Karen is the owner of Treasure Vox and brings her wealth of experience to the business, making personal documentaries of professional standard.

Margaret Julian

Margaret is President of Network Ireland Waterford, which is a non-profit voluntary organisation that supports the professional and personal development of women. It provides a forum in which women can develop professional and personal contacts to ensure that their contribution and influence is recognised as a vital force in business and in society.

Margaret is the Director of GDPR Audits, which focuses on supporting businesses to safeguard and comply with the requirements of GDPR and Data Protection Legislation. More recently she has launched Compliance Audits where she works closely with Financial Brokers to achieve compliance with their Central Bank Regulatory Requirements.

Margaret is a GDPR Compliance Mentor & Trainer for the LEO Network and is a Licentiate of the Compliance Institute of Ireland.

A Laois native, Margaret now lives in Passage East with her husband and 3 boys.

Register now and celebrate this year’s National Women’s Enterprise Day in the beautiful surroundings of Faithlegg House Hotel on October 13th - Book Now

Meet the panellists