Leading female entrepreneurs to address National Women's Enterprise Day event

Networking opportunity at CityNorth Hotel, Gormanston, on Thursday 13th October

All across Ireland, female entrepreneurs will be celebrating National Women's Enterprise Day (NWED) on Thursday 13th October. The theme for this year’s NWED is 'Our Future, Our Way', and Local Enterprise Offices Meath and Louth are once again joining forces to bring you an informative morning of insights from leading female entrepreneurs from within the region, as well as an opportunity to network. This will take place in the City North Hotel, Gormanston, on 13th October, with registration, refreshments, and networking from 9am to 9.30am; a panel discussion, questions and answers, and further networking followed by lunch, concluding at 2pm. The business environment has been transformed over the last few years with entrepreneurs and employees negotiating changed working patterns, rapid digitalisation and the need to consider sustainable business practices. Facilitator for the day, Miriam Simon, a leading business and retail strategist will provide a fascinating insight into the future of business and will discuss these with a guest panel where participants will learn key tips from the experiences and journeys of all the speakers to apply to the running of their own business.

THE SPEAKERS

Miriam Simon, business strategist

An experienced Business Strategist, Miriam works with business owners to drive successful growth strategy and high performance leadership. Her client portfolio includes several household name brands and fast growing companies. Miriam strength is that she translates complex business strategy -into easy to digest and easy to implement actions that deliver powerful results for the businesses she works with.

Her background includes a 30 year career of senior and board level roles within several household retail names such as TK Maxx, Monsoon Accessorize, LifeStyle Sports, and B&Q. Alongside this, Miriam has also spent the last decade mentoring start-ups in the disruptive technology and med-tech space, and she still works with the European Innovation Council in this field.

As a speaker, Miriam’s focus is often about consumer behaviour and market trends. Since the Pandemic broke - she has developed and delivered several highly acclaimed seminars and programmes that are focused towards the SME businesses and how to navigate the changing landscape in order to survive and thrive.

Marita Collier, Drummond House Garlic

Marita Collier of Drummond House Garlic, Drummond House Garlic is the first ever commercial producer of Irish garlic beginning her journey in 2012. Loosing almost 100% of their food service business in March 2020 with the closure of bars, restaurants and the lockdown, it was the perfect storm that no business could ever have planned for.

Photo by PAUSE TIME PHOTOGRAPHY

Growing fresh produce presented the extra challenge of limited time. Marita availed of the Trading Online Voucher and fast tracked her plans to start selling online and new valued added products were developed which have a longer shelf life for the retail market.

Sinead Crowther, Soothing Solutions &  Tonstix

Sinead Crowther founder of Soothing Solutions & Tonstix  is an inspirational mother of four boys , who after working for 20 years in pharmacies, spotted a big gap in the market for a strepsil type product for children.

Sinead Crowther of Soothing Solutions Photo by

Soothing Solutions is a manufacturing company that produces natural innovative products to help soothe young children when they are suffering from sore throats and dry coughs. Their first product Tonstix Honey Jelly pops launched in April 2022 and is now stocked in over 770 pharmacies in Ireland including Boots, McCabes, Hickeys and Allcare groups to name a few.

Sinead started with an idea at her kitchen table and it took 5 years to bring its product Tonstix to the market such is the complex innovation that was involved to scale up and now her company is valued at €2.5million.

Lavina McGahon, Thrive4Women

With years of experience working as a business coach and mentor, Lavina McGahon has a wealth of insights into starting and scaling a business. Lavina is now Programme Manager for Thrive4Women, a support for women bringing new STEM products and services to market. She will talk about developing business strategy, avoiding common mistakes and accessing supports.

Miriam and the panellists will bring their experience of adapting to rapid change in business environment and will discuss the future of business and the opportunities and challenges ahead

After the panel discussion there will be time for  Q&A; A networking lunch will be served and spot prizes will be on offer.; Each guest will leave with a goodie bag*

BOOK YOUR TICKET AT WWW.LOCALENTERPRISE.IE/MEATH