Celebrating Women’s enterprise

MORE than 250 businesswomen joined forces with the Local Enterprise Office South Dublin to celebrate ten years of National Women’s Enterprise Day with a major event in the Radisson Blu Airport Hotel.

The 31 LEOs from local authorities all over the country participated in the event which saw female entrepreneurs share their business expertise.

Hosted by RTÉ’s Keelin Shanley, guest speakers included Sherri Brennan of Skip Trans and President of the South Dublin Chamber, Nicola Byrne of Cloud90 and 11890, and Susan Spence of SoftCo Ltd and Joanne Hession of The Entrepreneurs Academy.

Last year, LEOs supported over 11,000 female entrepreneurs, and tried to encourage more local businesswomen to access enterprise supports in 2016.

Amanda Mills, LEO South Dublin, said: “We want local women entrepreneurs to truly believe in themselves and to succeed.
“Our National Women’s Enterprise Day event was a hugely important platform. By learning from experienced businesswomen, they now hopefully feel encouraged to develop their own business ideas to start their ‘road to success.”

Minister of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Mary Mitchell O’Connor, said it was heartening to see more women than ever seeking support from the LEOs.

Minister for Training, Skills and Innovation, John Halligan, said the huge interest in this year’s National Women’s Enterprise Day certainly was an “encouraging sign that more women are considering entrepreneurship as a career.”

National Women’s Enterprise Day is an annual initiative of LEOs and is supported by Enterprise Ireland and the Local Authorities Network.

Further information on the supports available to small businesses and start-ups is available through www.localenterprise.ie