Highlights from MamaCon 2018
Oct 23, 2018
This past Saturday we had the distinct pleasure of hosting the third annual MamaCon - our full day conference for Mama Entrepreneurs. It was such an electrifying day, with approximately 80 mamapreneurs in attendance.
Our mission has always been to help connect, support and inspire moms who run their own businesses. MamaCon is a chance for us to bring our amazing members (and soon-to-be members) together for one entire day, away from the hustle and bustle of our daily lives, to focus on both personal and professional growth.
The main highlight for many attendees was a riveting keynote address by the incomparable Erica Ehm. Erica is not only a well known media figure and a mompreneur herself, she’s also an incredible and generous human being. Erica spoke at length about the importance of asking for what you want, and making bold, often difficult choices. The theme of our entire day was Courageous Leadership and Erica certainly inspired courage amongst our mamas!
Another highlight was guest speaker Shannon Lee Simmons who spoke about the importance of financial leadership. Shannon noted that confidence is a key element to financial success, when it comes to both personal finances and business finances. To top it all off she had us all in stitches multiple times. We highly recommend you pick up a copy of her brand new book Worry-Free Money.
One of our long time members, Dr. Stacy Thomas lead us through an incredibly moving expressive writing workshop. All 80 attendees sat in silence for approximately 10 minutes while engaging in free writing. At the end, we shared with each other some excerpts from our writing. It was a powerful experience that brought many women to tears.
One of the most exciting parts of the day was the announcement of our very first winner of the Mamapreneur Fund. This was a grant that we created to award one deserving member that shows incredible promise.
Our mission has always been to help connect, support and inspire moms who run their own businesses. MamaCon is a chance for us to bring our amazing members (and soon-to-be members) together for one entire day, away from the hustle and bustle of our daily lives, to focus on both personal and professional growth.
The main highlight for many attendees was a riveting keynote address by the incomparable Erica Ehm. Erica is not only a well known media figure and a mompreneur herself, she’s also an incredible and generous human being. Erica spoke at length about the importance of asking for what you want, and making bold, often difficult choices. The theme of our entire day was Courageous Leadership and Erica certainly inspired courage amongst our mamas!
Another highlight was guest speaker Shannon Lee Simmons who spoke about the importance of financial leadership. Shannon noted that confidence is a key element to financial success, when it comes to both personal finances and business finances. To top it all off she had us all in stitches multiple times. We highly recommend you pick up a copy of her brand new book Worry-Free Money.
One of our long time members, Dr. Stacy Thomas lead us through an incredibly moving expressive writing workshop. All 80 attendees sat in silence for approximately 10 minutes while engaging in free writing. At the end, we shared with each other some excerpts from our writing. It was a powerful experience that brought many women to tears.
One of the most exciting parts of the day was the announcement of our very first winner of the Mamapreneur Fund. This was a grant that we created to award one deserving member that shows incredible promise.
We received over 30 applications, and the competition was fierce. We are pleased to share the winner was Allison Venditti of Careerlove. Allison has a mission of keeping women in the workforce after having children. She is launching a new “Return to Work” course that will help prepare new mothers for returning to their jobs after maternity leave. She also plans to devote some of the funds to develop a program to help companies and HR teams keep women in the work force and create a pipeline for female leadership candidates. Allison saw an area where there is tremendous need and she is filling that need with the work that she does.
We are honored to award her our Grand Prize worth over $2000, so she can further her mission and continue to change lives. We are also pleased to announce the two runners up, Ronit Soroksky of League of Moms and Jana Girdauskas of The Period Purse who each won a free 2019 Mamas & Co. membership.
We want to take another opportunity to thank all of our MamaCon sponsors for making this day such a huge success. Our Gold Sponsors, FreshBooks and Parker Group, our Silver Sponsors TD Accounting Services, Kith & Kin LLP, Open LLP, Henry Business Law, and our Bronze Sponsors Maguire Marketing Group, The Workaround and Materials and Methods. We would also like to thank member businesses MD Media Inc. who captured portions of the day on film, Burlap & Lace who provided the beautiful flower arrangements and Tiny Anchor for printing our gorgeous event workbooks. All helped make MamaCon 2018 our best conference yet!
We would also like to thank our exceptional, fearless team of volunteers; Dominica Larkin, Jennifer Myers Chua, Amelia Rebolo, Caitlin Wright and Camilla Brown who helped make the event run so smoothly.
Last but not least we shared some important details about 2019 Membership. 2019 is shaping up to be our best yet. We have some amazing speakers lined up as well as some fantastic new ways for our members to connect and succeed. If you're interested in joining us next year, we highly recommend you join our Waitlist so you can be amoungst the first to know the details!
Last but not least we shared some important details about 2019 Membership. 2019 is shaping up to be our best yet. We have some amazing speakers lined up as well as some fantastic new ways for our members to connect and succeed. If you're interested in joining us next year, we highly recommend you join our Waitlist so you can be amoungst the first to know the details!
Once again, a huge thank you to all of our mamapreneurs who came out and spent the day with us. We're so honoured to be a part of your business journey and we're so grateful for your ongoing support. Thank you for making this the best MamaCon ever!