Entrepreneur Alert
Must know upcoming events of interest for current and aspiring female business owners.
From June 23 through 25, Austin will host the Women’s Business Enterprise National Council’s (WBENC) annual national conference, and the good news for Austin entrepreneurs is that anyone can attend and it’s not too late to register. Expected to draw more than 3,500 attendees, the national conference and business fair is the largest of its kind for women business owners in the United States.
Programming will include lectures and presentations from nationally recognized experts on relevant topics of business, finance and key trends, as well as engaging panel discussions, one-on-one matchmaker sessions, networking receptions and a business fair featuring more than 300 exhibitors. It is a great opportunity to network and connect with women-owned businesses and Fortune 500 companies that are industry leaders in health care, travel and logistics, energy, retail, transportation, telecommunications, finance, banking, office supplies and consumer-packaged goods, to name a few, in addition to federal, state and local government agencies. For more info, visit conf.wbenc.org. Patti Winstanley, president of Aztec Promotional Group, is the chair of the host committee for the 2015 WBENC conference. Austin woman asked Winstanley to comment on the benefits of women business enterprise (WBE), as well as the conference.
“Aztec has gained access to WBE and corporate buyers and mentors through WBENC certification, and has helped grow our customer base with corporate, B2B [business to business], as well as government contracting through the [Small Business Administration’s] Woman Owned Small Business certification program. The reputation that WBENC has with corporate America and the SBA, and the collective knowledge from the people we have met through certification with this organization has inspired Aztec’s growth, friendship and innovation,” Winstanley says.
“The conference brings together buyers from over 300 top corporations and women-owned businesses of all sizes to showcase their capabilities. There is no greater opportunity than this event.”
The tagline of the Small Business Administration is “Dream Big. Start Small.” And from May 4 through 8, they will celebrate America’s entrepreneurs during National Small Business Week. Austin Woman 2010 small Business Grant Award winner Cherie Mathews is one of 15 female entrepreneurs who have reached the finals in the SBA InnovateHERBusiness Challenge, a nationwide competition for entrepreneurs who develop products and services to enhance the lives of women and their families.
It was Mathews’ Heal in Comfort shirts, designed for breast-cancer patients, that landed her in the finals. We wish Mathews the best as she heads to Washington, D.C., to compete for one of the top three awards and a total of $30,000 in prize money.
As events for National Small Business Week are finalized, more details will be posted here.
Woman’s Way Business Awards
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