Women supporting women is just as vital today as it was when IWF was founded 50 years ago. The challenges remain, and backsliding happens all too frequently. Women remain underrepresented in the C-suite; on corporate boards; and at the top of academia, the creative arts and the law, finance, science, technology, media and health sectors. Women also receive a fraction of the venture capital that is awarded to male-led enterprises.
Going for Growth is an Enterprise Ireland funded initiative, supported by KPMG, designed to help female entrepreneurs who have been trading for at least two years and are strongly focussed on growth.
At IWF Ireland we were delighted to host Inspiring Women Entrepreneurs, this latest event in conjunction with Going for Growth and Paula Fitzsimons who heads up this great work, the event was held on 8 October at KPMG offices in Dublin. The event is part of the Inspiring Women Entrepreneurs initiative, which aims to inspire the next generation of female leaders.
This was a great opportunity to bring together a wonderful group of influential women to engage on the topic of female entrepreneurship and to listen to some wonderful speakers who through their actions are demonstrating what is possible.
Guests heard from Kate Scott, Louella Morton, and Áine Denn. These formidable women represent a recently established business, a well-established and growing business, a recently sold business, so all the phases of a successful entrepreneurial life cycle.
We were delighted that our members were a terrifically attentive audience. We hope that the attendees will become ambassadors for Going for Growth and female entrepreneurs more generally.
After a terrific Going for Growth Community Forum and amid very supportive commentary on social media, the call for applicants for the 17th cycle of Going for Growth officially opened in the last weeks. As always, they expect a good number of high-quality applicants. Those interested can get further details on the website and, if they wish to receive an application form, they should register on www.goingforgrowth.com
Finally, just to let you know that Paula and her team have uploaded on the home page of the website, https://goingforgrowth.com/ the video that was made at the Forum, which was showed at the event. It captures succinctly the essence of Going for Growth.
Many thanks to Margot Slattery and to KPMG for hosting this event with such an inspiring group of successful entrepreneurs, and Paula herself is a real powerhouse of positive energy and enthusiasm.
Pictured left to right: Olivia Lynch, KPMG, Kate Scott, HoloToyz, Áine Denn (formerly Altify) and Carol Gibbons, Head of Regions & Local Enterprise, Margot Slattery, ISS A/S and Louella Morton, TestReach.
