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Women Outside the Box FFE14 a great success!

21st October 2014

  

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Women Outside the Box  (0.20 MB)

Company Announcement - Women Outside the Box, the business platform for women, held FFE14, The Festival of Female Entrepreneurs 2014 yesterday, at Colston Hall in Bristol. WOTB is the go-to community for women in business, with an online platform supported by offline clubs and events. These include regional City Business Clubs, and WOTB Online, a forum and networking hub. The festival is aimed at women who own an SME, those thinking about setting up on their own, female freelancers and students. The largest of its kind in the UK, the women who came to the event made the most of the inspirational speakers, advice workshops and exhibition areas. Free to attend, the event offered a wide variety of content and activity on the day, allowing attendees to network, hear success stories, and ask advice about how to start or grow their business.

Keynote speaker was Fiona Stewart, owner of the Green Man Festival, with MD of Softwire Technology Zoe Cunningham heading up a panel dedicated to women and technology.
The winners of three very different competitions were announced on the day;

• The Women Outside The Box Upstart Women Competition offered a place on the prestigious WebStart Bristol incubator programme for the best digital start-up idea – this was won by Jessica Turley and Emily Pettiford, from Bespoke Bride.

Joni Farthing, founder, WOTB said; “When WebStart Bristol and WOTB got together we knew we wanted to invest in people, not just a bright idea. We know that a team of two or three co-founders usually do better than single founders. And all those founders have to be very hard working. When we met Jessica and Emily we knew we’d hit gold! Two bubbly young women who live their brand. Beautifully presented, full of ideas and fun, committed to consistency of work and quality, utterly unphased by talking money. They will use the £15K investment to build their marketing campaign, and they will work with mentors and experts over the next 10 weeks at WebStart getting to grips with the fundamental legal and financial aspects of running a high-growth business. And Women Outside The Box will be accompanying them on their journey for a year, via our City Business Club in Bristol, which fosters synergies and advice-sharing between ambitious female business women.”

• The Women with Bright Ideas Competition, run by Innovation in Engineering SW, to find the best female engineering start-up idea. There were two winners, as the entrants were so strong. Chloe Meineck for her Musical Memory Box, which invites dementia sufferers to interact with familiar sounds that stir lost memories, and Catherine Dodd and Rosie Phelps for their ‘doddl’ toddler’s cutlery, which makes eating easier and more efficient. Functionally, it aims to develop the child’s pincer grip, improve dexterity, support independent feeding and aid the transition to using normal adult cutlery. Joni Farthing, founder, WOTB said; “The winners are fabulous!  Chloe’s invention may well make her huge amounts of money. The invention of a music box to prompt and recall memories in dementia patients was inspired by working with her grandmother who has dementia. Catherine’s kid’s cutlery is a very smart idea, progressing toddlers fast through the eating stages that lead to the ability to eat with a knife and fork.  She’s a very bright and determined woman, and I can see major stores stocking this invention.”

• And the I Bring competition – which included a wide range of prizes aimed at giving the winner a large helping hand in growing their business, and which was held in conjunction with our Festival sponsors Freeagent, BrunelOne, Dunkleys and Somerset Design. The prizes were won by Sarah Parkins for her business Sniffy Wiffy, which makes beauty products that also prepare skin for a breast examination.

Joni Farthing, founder, WOTB said; “Sniffy Wiffy make beauty products with a purpose.  Sarah Parkins’ business idea stood out as a clear winner.  We judged the I Bring competition solely on the idea.  We didn’t meet or interview the owner.  We wanted to see a business that had understood its customer’s world, an idea that its customers could identify with and champion.

Sniffy Wiffy makes beautiful skin lotions that prepare the skin perfectly for a breast examination.  And every product reminds women how to do this, and to do it now.  It is a wonderfully feminine way to improve women’s health by fighting breast cancer. In addition, Sniffy Wiffy donates part of its income to the breast cancer charity Coppa Feel. A brilliant name, a marvellous mission, financially savvy and totally aligned to today.”

Jo Swinson, Minister for Employment Relations and Consumer Affairs in the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills and Women and Equalities Minister, commented about FFE14: “More and more women are turning their business ideas into reality and are successful in doing so, which is why events like the FFE are so popular. The government is working to make this country the best place to start and grow a business, but ultimately our economy’s success relies on the efforts of our entrepreneurs, and women like Fiona Stewart are an inspiration to us all.”

Edited by Creamer Media Reporter

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