Female entrepreneurs and budding businesswomen from across Limerick are being encouraged to look to the future and register for this year’s National Women’s Enterprise Day 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 LEO Limerick putting on events for female businesswomen across Limerick 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 7 October and will feature some of Ireland’s best known female entrepreneurs including the likes of 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.
Limerick’s very own Aoife McNamara, fashion Designer of AOIFE Ireland Label, has been selected as a panelist on the day, and Leo Limerick’s leading light for the event is Wendy Roberts, Managing Director of Creative Flavours Ireland Ltd, based in Patrickswell, and set up to bring cutting edge flavour products to Irish food and beverage manufacturers.
The day’s programme will cover a whole host of areas on how to build the future of a business covering topics like, how to get started, internationalisation, 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).
LEO Limerick Co-ordinator for the event Mary Killeen Fitzgerald 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, but with an emphasis on looking forward. How can we help female entrepreneurs in Limerick sustain and develop their businesses and ideas going into the future.
“The last 18 months have created huge problems for businesses all across the city and county 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 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.