Spotlight on women in business
SHERIDAN Insurances in conjunction with Zurich has held its first ever Women in Business event in Wexford.
The ‘Empowering Women’ evening was held at Sheridan Insurances, the Arc, Drinagh, last Thursday. A spokesperson for the organisers said the aim of the event was to ‘empower, inspire and motivate’ those in attendance and that unlike other seminars it wasn’t just aimed at entrepreneurs.
Over 100 people attended and organiser Sharon Banville described it as a great event that attracted an audience composed of people from a wide range of backgrounds.
‘There were all types of people in attendance,’ she said.
‘There were young and old, mature people and people who don’t have businesses but who were interested in the empowering aspect of it,’ she added.
Focussing on the positive the aim of the seminar was to help people concentrate on becoming proactive and it was based around an overall theme of empowerment.
‘The key message was one of positivity,’ said Ms Banville.
‘It was about telling people ‘you can do whatever you want to do’,’ she added.
She said taking attention away from negative aspects of the current economic and social climate at the event was done deliberately on the part of the organisers.
‘There is a lot of gender bias still out there but this was about being positive and turning ‘I can’t’ into ‘I can’,’ she said.
‘There were people from different backgrounds and also, within business, there were people there who operate at different levels from management to ground-floor staff but they all have something to contribute and we wanted to highlight that,’ said Ms Banville.
The seminar is something that Ms Banville hopes will be repeated and the plan is to stage two events-per-year.
‘It was one of many events we hope to stage and each one will have a particular focus,’ she said.
‘We hope that next time we will be able to expand and make it bigger as well,’ she added.
There was also a raffle held on the night with the proceeds going towards Wexford Women’s Refuge.
Ms Banville complimented the business owners and entrepreneurs who attended and also those people who haven’t yet taken their first foray into the world of business but went along to gain valuable insight.
‘It was about empowering people whatever their background and it was really good to see so many people embracing that,’ she said.
The keynote speaker was Sinead Kane who is the first blind person to complete the World Marathon Challenge which saw her finish seven marathons on seven continents in seven days. In doing so she also came joint-first in one of them - which was held in Dubai.
Adhering to an ethos of ‘be visionary, not blind’, Ms Kane highlighted how her disability never held her back.
A qualified solicitor she is the type of person whose enthusiasm for and positive approach to life are infectious.
In addition to her legal background she also holds a double PhD doctorate, is a double Guinness record holder, and is a visually impaired athlete.
In February this year she broke the Guinness world record for the furthest distance completed on a threadmill by a female in 12 hours.
At the seminar she highlighted how she overcame a lot of adversity during her life and emphasised that having belief in one’s own abilities and determination to succeed are keys to being successful and achieving a person’s full potential.
Another guest speaker at the event was author, Cat Hogan.
A mother of two boys Ms Hogan is also the writer of ‘They All Fall Down’ which is a psychological thriller that was published by Poolbeg Press in 2016.
When not writing books Ms Hogan offers freelance writing services to business start-ups. Like Ms Kane she focussed attention on how people can achieve far more by applying themselves correctly.