Uisneach Catering co-owner to star for LEO at Women’s Enterprise Day

A leading light for this year’s National Women’s Enterprise Day is Westmeath’s Aine Gavigan of award winning Uisneach Catering, Togherstown, Loughnavalley. Aine, co-founder of the business, will represent Westmeath LEO at the event on Thursday October 7.

Female entrepreneurs and budding businesswomen across the county are encouraged to register for this free online event, titled ‘Building the Future’. The programme will cover how to start and build a business, internationalisation, finding new markets, trading effectively online, sustainability and innovation.

There will be breakout rooms for networking and a one-to-one advice clinics for any business issues.

Figures recently released by LEOs show that the number of women engaging in entrepreneurship and business supports continues to rise. In 2020, some 47,000 women engaged in training and upskilling with their LEOs, up from 23,466 the previous year and 50% more women than men took part in training and upskilling.

Aine Gavigan’s Uisneach Catering is an example of what can be achieved. They now cater for a wide range of events for both private and corporate clients – weddings, Communions, Christening, birthday parties, hen parties, after funeral and memorial service hospitality, retirement parties, Christmas parties, business launches, corporate lunches, staff events and sports teams and events.

The head of enterprise at LEO Westmeath, Christine Charlton, says National Women’s Enterprise Day has always been about celebrating the best in female entrepreneurship and highlighting the strength of that community. It is about how we can “help female entrepreneurs in Westmeath sustain and develop their businesses and ideas”, she says.

She acknowledges that the last 18 months have been problematic for businesses, but stresses that there are opportunities too. Thursday’s programme is about looking at areas where businesses can grow and what supports there are, and is an opportunity to meet female entrepreneurs and experts from around the county.

It will feature some of Ireland’s best known female entrepreneurs such as Aimee Connolly of Sculpted by Aimee, Rachel Doyle of The Arboretum and Sharon Keegan of Peachy Lean, who was recently supported by Dragons’ Den, UK, and of course, Aine Gavigan.

Other participants on the day include Gerry Duffy, who will be conducting an energising session, Jenny Melia and Sheelagh Daly from Enterprise Ireland on international markets, Noel Davidson of the Entrepreneurs Academy on creating connections, designer Aoife McNamara on starting a business and a host of others covering all sorts of topics from finance to trading online.

For more information and to register for free visit www.localenterprise.ie/Westmeath and join the conversation online using the hashtag #NWED.