‘Biggest-ever’ National Women’s Enterprise Day set for October, as Carlow hosts “Stand Out” event in Lisnavagh House

To mark National Women’s Enterprise Day, Local Enterprise Office (Carlow) is organizing a major event in Lisnavanagh House. For National Women’s Enterprise Day (NWED) in Carlow we are focusing on getting your business to “Stand out from the Crowd” a morning of inspiration and learning with guest speakers; Former World Champion, Olympian and Entrepreneur Derval O’Rourke and our Carlow NWED Ambassador, Kate Gaynor of Advanced Coating Ltd.   Interactive learning led by expert business communicators from The Core Story.  All set in the beautiful venue of Lisnavagh House

Figures released by Local Enterprise Offices to coincide with the launch reveal that 21, 859 female participants took part in training programmes with their LEO in 2018, an increase of 18% on 2017 figures.  There was also a big increase in the number of female entrepreneurs benefiting from business mentoring through their Local Enterprise Office last year – from 3,832 in 2017 up to 4,565 in 2018 (up by 19%).

On October 17^th, NWED Ambassadors will be sharing their success stories at events in Carlow, Cavan, Clare, Cork, Donegal, Dublin, Galway, Kildare, Kilkenny, Leitrim, Meath, Monaghan, Offaly, Sligo, Waterford, Wexford, and Wicklow.

Heather Humphreys T.D., Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation said: “I am delighted to announce the biggest ever programme of events for National Women’s Enterprise Day, which will take place at 17 events around the country on Thursday, October 17th. Ireland has some of the world’s finest women in business. We want to showcase their wonderful work to encourage more women to get into business. Supporting and fostering female entrepreneurship is a priority in Future Jobs Ireland, our whole-of-Government plan to prepare our businesses and workers for the future. Last year, the LEOs provided training to 22,000 female entrepreneurs but we want to see these numbers grow even more.”

Pauline Hoctor , Senior Enterprise Development Officer with Local Enterprise Office (Carlow) said: “The theme for this year’s National Women’s Enterprise Day on October 17^th is ‘Making It Happen’ and we want to highlight all the supports that can ‘make it happen’ for women in County Carlow that want to start or grow their business over the next year.”

She continued: “It’s great to see that nearly 40% of new business owners in Ireland are women, showing that the gender gap is narrowing according to the latest Global Entrepreneurship Monitor report**. Through the 31 Local Enterprise Offices, we saw a higher take-up of supports by female entrepreneurs last year – from those that were looking to start a new business venture by themselves to those that wanted to grow an existing family business.”

Speaking about the importance of leadership Chief Executive of Carlow County Council, Kathleen Holohan said

“In County Carlow we have a number of nationally recognized examples of female led enterprises which provide thousands of jobs in the County Carlow economy and we are delighted to be able to once again spearhead this event which celebrates and provides an opportunity to build our economy by bringing together the depth and breath of collective experience of County Carlow female entrepreneurs” , Holohan continued to say

“I believe it’s important we focus as part of this national programme on female entrepreneurs who stand out from the crowd in our County who create strong role models for the next generation”

For more information on National Women’s Enterprise Day and to find out how to book tickets at events nationwide, go to www.LocalEnterprise.ie/carlow or search #NWED on social media.