Oakville, Wednesday May 15:
Honourable Mary Ng, Canada’s Minister of Small Business and Export Promotion will inaugurate Canada India Foundation’s Women Entrepreneurs’ Conference and Workshop at the Pearson Convention Centre in Brampton on Wednesday 22 May 2019 and deliver the keynote address.
The conference will be a two-day event. The first day will be held at the Pearson Convention Centre, Brampton, and the second day will be held at CIF’s offices in Oakville.
The conference is a friendly, non-judgmental platform for women entrepreneurs, both established and starting out, to understand the ecosystem of women enterprise and avail of the opportunities available through official agencies and through the shared experiences.
The purpose of the conference is to provide guidance to businesses owned and operated by visible minority women to benefit from the path-breaking policy announcements of the federal government to promote enterprise by women.
Brampton’s Mayor Patrick Brown will deliver a special address on the occasion, as will Almas Jiwani, the former Almas Jiwani, President of UN Women Canada National Committee and CEO of Frontier Canada Inc.
The 22 May 2019 program includes three panel discussions and three workshops. The panel discussions are on the following topics:
- Start, Grow and Scale-up- Do’s and Don’ts
- Inspiring case studies of women owned companies
- Innovative Entrepreneurs: Turning ideas into business
Jennifer Cooke of Corporate Lead for Women’s Business Strategy at Export Development Canada will speak about exploring global markets.
Business Development Bank of Canada’s Emel Iscan Demir, BDC will have fireside chat with Kim Thiara of AceTronic Industrial Controls Inc. on business financing.
Gerry Fung, Northbridge Consulting and Shirin Mandani, Grant X Inc., will conduct a workshop on government grants for business and not-for-profit.
The panelists are women business owners and include Ami Shah, Peekapak; Balbir Sohi, Smiles on Wheels; Hema Bhatt, Natu’Oil Services; Kanta Arora, Arconic International Languages; Kiran Hirpara, Unique Broadband Systems; Latha Sukumar, MCIS Language Solutions; Lisa Sohanpal, Nom Noms World Food; Maya Roy, YWCA; Reetu Gupta, Eastons Group of Hotels Inc.; Sunita Vyas, Academy of Learning, and Vandana Kumar, Government of India.
On Thursday 23 May 2019, there will be a focused group discussion on women empowerment in which Hon. Nina Tangri, MPP, Mississauga-Streetsville; Hon. Dipika Damrela, Councillor, Mississauga Ward 7; and Hon. Sameera Ali, Councillor, Milton Ward 4 will participate. The theme of the discussion to explore women empowerment in the context of women representatives of people belonging to the visible minorities.