Joni Farthing, founder of the Women Outside the Box event
Britain’s first women’s business event will take place in Bristol later this year, it has been confirmed.
Women Outside The Box will take place on October 8 at the Arnolfini and M Shed and will then be taken around all major cities in the country.
The free-to-attend day offers advice specifically designed for women on starting up and growing a business, as well as demystifying some of the issues that face modern female entrepreneurs.
There are now more than 150 people registered to attend and the organisers are expecting 1,000 women to attend on the day.
Companies who want to promote their services to the business women attending are urged to take part, as it is the only opportunity to promote to a female only audience of this number. There is also a busy market area where mumpreneurs have family, fashion and food items on sale.
Joni Farthing, Director of Women Outside The Box, said an event was arranged in March to support International Women’s Day. The response, she said, was overwhelming and sparked the idea for the major event later this year.
“Once those hundred women started networking there was no stopping them. People were asking why there weren’t more large-scale business events like that for women, and that’s how the idea came about,” she said.
“I believe feeling oneself to be part of something big, gives us all the confidence to be ambitious. It’s important that women starting out have the chance to meet with others who are already successful. But when it comes time to grow their company women can often get stuck. So there’ll be a lot of help through workshops and clinics on this subject at the festival.”
Research carried out by the Women Enterprise Network in 2011 showed “a significant proportion of women feel they are held back from achieving their full potential by the struggle to achieve a work life balance (39%). This is a continuing major challenge, particularly for females running micro businesses who have family/caring responsibilities. Despite this, 59% of respondents manage to network regularly to overcome isolation.”
Ms Farthing added: “For women in particular it is really important they get support and grow their network to succeed in business, whether that’s for help with their childcare arrangements or finding suppliers they have confidence in. Women also tend to make business relationships in a very different way from men as we enjoy finding common ground, empathising and working collaboratively.”
To find out more about exhibiting or attending Women Outside The Box go to www.womenoutsidethebox.co.uk
