Record numbers attend Clare event for National Women’s Enterprise Day 2024
Key Note speaker of the day was Aimee Connolly of Sculpted by Aimee
Dromoland Castle in County Clare was the venue for this year’s Mid-West Region event to mark National Women’s Enterprise Day.
The keynote speaker was Aimee Connolly of Sculpted by Aimee, with a panel of guest speakers from Clare and across the region.
The focus of the full-day programme was on female entrepreneurship, across the conference, 155 attendees networked, engaged with leading industry experts and acquired valuable knowledge about the extensive range of supports available from LEO.
Over 2,200 female entrepreneurs and women in business attended the 14 Local Enterprise Office led events nationwide, the most that has attended the day since it’s inception in 2006.
It was also revealed that so far this year 64% of those who availed of training this year by the Local Enterprise Offices were women and that 61% of the participants in the Local Enterprise Offices Start Your Own Business programme in 2024 have been female.
Co-Chair of National Women’s Enterprise Day 2024, Breege Cosgrave, said: “It is fantastic to see a record turnout for this year’s National Women’s Enterprise Day. Since Covid we have seen how important these events can be for helping female entrepreneurs and women in business to grow their networks and see there is support out there within their community to help get them started and to grow their businesses. National Women’s Enterprise Day is vital for showcasing the very best of our female entrepreneurs and showing those who hope to take that leap in the future that the support is there.”
This was the 18th year of National Women’s Enterprise Day and the theme of this year’s event was, 'Making it happen.' The event aims to encourage businesswomen to take that next step whether that be to act on an idea, grow their business or take steps to change or innovate in their business. The event also highlights the supports available to early stage small businesses from funding and grants to mentoring and training.
Some of those that took part this year included Founder and CEO of Sculpted by Aimee, Aimee Connolly, Founder of CPL Resources, Anne Heraty, Oonagh O’Hagan of Meaghers Pharmacy, broadcaster and entrepreneur, Norah Casey, Martina Fitzgerald of Scale Ireland, entrepreneur Chupi Sweetman and broadcaster and podcaster Sile Seoige.
They were joined at the events in Clare and across the country by a host of female led small businesses and start-ups are telling their story of how they began and made it happen with their ideas.
Click here For more information on National Women’s Enterprise Day.