Inspiring Women with Entrepreneurial Ambitions
10th June 2024
Three leading Irish female entrepreneurs will be offering insight into their experiences of starting and growing a successful business at an Inspiring Women Entrepreneurs event at the Irish Management Institute (IMI) on Friday, June 21.
Entrepreneurs Susan Spence co-founder of SoftCo, Andrea Doolan of Atlantia Clinical Trials, and Kate Scott of HoloToyz will give an address and answer audience questions at the IMI Conference Centre on the IMI Campus in Sandyford, Dublin 16, from 10.30am to 12.30pm. A light networking lunch will follow.
Now in its second year, Inspiring Women Entrepreneurs is supported by Enterprise Ireland and KPMG. Those attending the IMI event will have the opportunity to apply for the Inspiring Women Entrepreneurs support programme itself.
The Inspiring initiative seeks to ignite a flame among women with entrepreneurial ambitions to start a business, but who may not have yet taken steps towards making their aspiration a reality.
It is designed to appeal to women from a variety of backgrounds who are seeking a change of direction, including female professionals and women in senior corporate positions, or those with doctoral and postdoctoral qualifications.
Research shows that almost one in five women in Ireland aspire to start their own business and the initiative is focused on encouraging women to follow through on their entrepreneurial ambitions and establish businesses that are scalable, innovative, and focused on export markets.
Tickets are free but those hoping to attend are requested to register in advance as spaces are limited. Places can be booked here.
Welcoming her involvement in the IMI event, Susan Spence, said: “Having been involved with Going for Growth for over 10 years, it has been great to see how the supporting infrastructure has developed and thrived over that time. I am delighted to be speaking at the upcoming event in the IMI and looking forward to inspiring a new cohort of female entrepreneurs.”
National Director of Inspiring Women Entrepreneurs, Paula Fitzsimons, said: “The objective of this compelling and inspiring initiative is to increase the number of female- led innovative businesses of scale, focused on export markets. Through the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) research, we know that more women in Ireland are aspiring to start new businesses and that the rate of early-stage female entrepreneurs that aspire for significant growth is also increasing.
“Building on this fertile ground, we want to introduce the possibility of an entrepreneurial career to particular groups of ambitious women who may not have considered it previously, and where we believe untapped, entrepreneurial potential lies.”
Key to the overall programme itself is the panel of Inspiring Women Entrepreneurs who have all volunteered their time and have been selected based on their professional experience, their backgrounds in corporate life and academia, and their experience of building innovative companies across a range of sectors.
Panel members are drawn from the Going for Growth Community and include: Áine Kerr, entrepreneur and broadcaster; Áine Denn, entrepreneur and adviser; Dr Anne Cusack, co-founder of Critical Healthcare; Dr Barbara Anne Murphy, Head of Equine Science at UCD and Chief Science Officer at Equilume; Dr Emmeline Hill, Professor School of Agriculture and Food Science at UCD and founder of Equinome; Fidelma McGuirk, Founder and CEO of Payslip; Jennifer Corley, co-founder of EquiTrace; Leonora O’Brien, founder of Pharmapod; Louella Morton, co-founder of TestReach; Vanessa Creaven, co-founder of Spotlight Oral Care.
