Women-Owned Business Marketplace
Exhibit Hall A | Open All Day
Sponsored by
We work hard each year to bring you a wonderful group of local and national businesses, all owned by women. Join the Conference in our commitment to supporting these women – today and throughout the year!
And while you’re there, be sure to drop in on a small business roundtable.
Small Business Roundtables | 3:00 – 3:30 pm; 3:35 – 4:05 pm; 4:10 – 4:40 pm
Don’t miss your opportunity to sit down with some of Boston’s best and brightest in business for these intimate sessions.
Led by expert facilitators, roundtables offer an informal and intimate setting to share best practices around a focused and specific topic within the small business and entrepreneurial spaces. Roundtables are discussion based and will not feature a formal presentation. We encourage attendees to come with questions.
Roundtables are limited to ten people per topic and are first-come, first-served. We encourage you to come early to guarantee your spot. However, we will offer each roundtable a total of three times to give attendees the opportunity to participate in multiple discussions on different topics and ensure that participants have another opportunity to join should a table fill up fast.
Roundtables will take place at the following times:
3:00 PM – 3:30 PM
3:35 PM – 4:05 PM
4:10 PM – 4:40 PM
Accessing Capital to Start and Grow your Business
Women-owned businesses are a critical and growing component of our economy, but accessing capital is still one of the most significant challenges for them to start and grow their businesses. Sharing best practices and lessons learned from their per-sonal entrepreneurial journeys, Seth Goodall and Teresa Maynard offer tips to help you prepare to access capital and discuss the different options existing today in the marketplace.
SETH GOODALL, executive director, corporate social responsibility, Santander Bank, N.A. @santanderbankus
TERESA MAYNARD, owner, Sweet Teez Bakery @sweetteezbakery
Are You Ready to Lean Out?
If you are longing to demonstrate your career achievements in something other than a quarterly report, if you want owner-ship in addition to accountability, if your current job no longer sparks joy, then maybe it’s time to Lean Out. Join us for a frank conversation with Anne Traer, who left a 20+ year career in technology to become a florist, flower farmer, and small business owner. We’ll talk about how to make the decision to lean out, how to prepare for a career shift, and how to start down a new and independent career path.
ANNE TRAER, founder, Garden & Roads
How to Bootstrap a Business
Think you need thousands of dollars to start a business? Think again. At this intimate roundtable, you’ll walk away with a newfound confidence and excitement for growing your company on just a few hundred dollars. We’ll discuss the top money-wasting mistakes entrepreneurs make when starting out, how to market and obtain PR for free, and share strategies on how to drive sales on little to no budget.
MICHELLE WAX, 3-time entrepreneur, author and film-maker @the.wax.life (IG)
Legal Do’s + Don’ts for Entrepreneurs
Running a business is all fun and games until you run into legal trouble. Whether you’ve got a side hustle or a fully formed business, you’ll leave this roundtable knowing how to make the right legal decisions to protect you and your business without blowing your budget.
BIANCA JORDAN, founder, Brazen Legal@brazenlawyer
Preventing Sexual Harassment in Small Businesses
The #MeToo movement brought increased awareness to workplace sexual harassment, yet it left many business leaders with unanswered questions. On top of that, research shows that many widely used corporate sexual harassment programs are ineffective. This roundtable will give women leaders the opportunity to share strategies for creating and maintaining a safe and equitable workplace. Led by a nationally recognized leader in preventing sexual abuse in organizations, this session will focus on practical strategies, organizational culture, and best practices for giving employees the skills to intervene in potentially unsafe situations.
MEG STONE, executive director, IMPACT @megstoneimpact
Running a Mission-Driven Social Impact Business
In this roundtable, attendees will discuss the ins and outs of building and scaling a mission-driven social impact business. We will explore what it really means to be a mission-driven company, why social impact can help your business and how to implement a social impact component in an authentic way. Using her personal experiences, Meg Wheeler, co-founder of One For Women, will offer tips to help you stay true to your mission in a pivot; how to know when a social impact component is the right choice (especially when investors are telling you to abandon it); and how to choose the right organizations that align with your business.
MEG WHEELER, co-founder & CEO, One for Women @megkwheeler
Top Tips to Know Before Raising Capital
Companies need the right kind of capital to grow, just as children need the right kind of food to grow. In this discussion, we will demystify the process of raising capital and share tools to help you match the right capital with the right business needs. We will also explore best practices and lessons learned from the experiences of investors and entrepreneurs with whom The Impact Seat has worked.
BARBARA CLARKE, principal, The Impact Seat @beclarke