The Business Centre Nipissing Parry Sound and PARO Centre for Women’s Enterprise partnered to host the third annual Enterprising Women event at the Best Western, including keynotes, workshops, speed mentoring, trade show and awards gala to honour the women in the Northeastern region who’ve made a significant impact on the business community.
Denise Sherritt, Manager of the Business Centre Nipissing Parry Sound said it was an excellent opportunity for women in business to support and celebrate one another, considering women still face daily challenges in the professional world.
“It’s in celebration of international women’s day,” she said. “We do it in our region to celebrate our women as entrepreneurs. We bring in speakers who will hopefully ignite a fire within them and we have some training going on as well.”
During the day, keynote speaker Janet Podleski took to the stage to speak to the audience of women. The nation best-selling author, TV host, entrepreneur, and nutritionist, known for cookbooks like Looneyspoons, Crazy Plates, Eat, Shrink & Be Merry! And The Looneyspoons Collection shared her experience with local entrepreneurs, offering advice and answering questions about the world of business and building the confidence and motivation to dive into the challenges.
Also included in the day was a chance participate in speed mentoring, an activity which Sherritt said would permit professionals to have a one-on-one with key experts in different fields to get direct answers they required.
“We have different experts and they can choose three of them and sit at the table and get the chance to ask direct questions that will impact their businesses,” Sherritt said, noting how expensive to seek advice from these experts. “By having these speed mentors, they have several to choose from to get their questions answered. Having groups of women at the table too means other women can ask questions you may not have thought of.”
PARO Executive Director, Rosalind Lockyer said it was also a challenge for professionals to know which experts to seek when they face challenges in the professional world.
“People don’t necessarily know where to get a lawyer, for example. They may not know who the best one to go to for their issues, and who they’d feel comfortable with,” she said. “Speed mentoring helps get them introduced and opens the conversation up so they can try somebody and if they want to see them in the future.”
But despite all the celebration and progress, Lockyer said there was still a long way to go before men and women shared the same level of equality in the professional world.
“We would like to think we’ve made it and then Donald Trump appeared,” she said. “What we see with him is the problems that women have, respect. Women’s businesses are often not considered as significant as those started by men, and it’s nothing new. Culture used to have it where it was mostly men starting businesses, but it’s not really like that anymore and many women start a business. It ripples down for everything women have to do in businesses.”
During the evening, four awards were given to women who’ve made a significant effort in the community, creating a lasting impact.
- Crystal Kaufman, Bioped – Established business of the year
- Katy Latimer, Northern Tikes – New business of the year
- Sophie Bywater, Sophie habits helpers – Social entrepreneur
- Tenacious Tigerettes (Linda Morrin, Pamela Larouche, Ann McDonald, Jackie Vezeau) – PARO Circle of the year
