Some of the ladies who took part in the event with special guest Eileen Magnier of RTE.
RTE’s first ever female news correspondent imparted some of her years of wisdom to Donegal’s rising female business executives.
Eileen Magnier was the guest speaker at last Wednesday’s Cross Border Gathering of Past, Present and Future Women in Business from Donegal and Derry Event at An Grianán in Burt.
Eileen was so upbeat and her speech was so inspiring, according to the many who attended.
In 1989 Eileen was the first woman to be appointed as an RTE correspondent & she knew how hard she had to work as a woman to stay in the job, she had to work harder than any man.
She had to be clever, she had to be confident & she had to have a goal. That’s what has gotten her to where she is today.
Her story ended with a little piece of advice to all the women attending “ “Prioritise, make sure the family don’t lose out, make sure you always make sure you have that little bit of balance”.
The network was addressed by Mr. Michael Tunney, CEO, Donegal County Enterprise Board. Michael and the Donegal County Enterprise Board has been a supporter and funder of the network since it’s inception 13 years ago.
He welcomed all the women in Business and Enterprise to the event from both sides of the border. Michael congratulated them all on having the belief to start their own business and that although his organisation was there to help, it was individuals and not agencies who create employment and Donegal especially has a high level of female business entrepreneurs.
“There is a significant rise in opportunities, courses, programmes dedicated to female entrepreneurship through networks like Donegal Women in Business and Women in Enterprise Derry and he would encourage any women in business or thinking about setting up a business to join these networks. Michael continued to say that “Tell agencies or networks like ours what your business idea is, or if your business needs support and articulate your needs to us then you will get the support you need”.
He finished off wishing everyone success and reminding the group -“When you talk as a collective, then government agencies and agencies like your local Enterprise offices will listen to you”.
The event continued with Helen McDonnell from Women in Business Derry interviewing three local business owners from both sides of the border, Annette Houston from FM Cleaning, Patricia Hill from Stateside American Restaurant and Laura Campbell from Dog Ears, in an on the couch style chat show.
Very relaxed and very informative, the three ladies gave honest stories about how they got to where they are today.
It was followed by a Q&A session which very much included the audience and some interesting and important questions were put to the panel.
The event finished off with Lunch in a lunch bag style table networking event, hosted by local industry experts from the world of customer service, marketing, social media, finance, HR, wellbeing to name but a few.
Every one who attended got something from this event and should anyone wish to join the network you can email RWasson@donegalenterprise.ie, it costs only €25 per year and the benefits like networking events that just past can be so beneficial to your future success.
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