International Women’s Day panel to discuss local entrepreneurship, business planning - MLive.com

International Women’s Day panel to discuss local entrepreneurship, business planning - MLive.com

ANN ARBOR, MI -- All are welcome to attend the Women Building Connections networking and panel discussion, which will focus on local entrepreneurship, planning and business economics.

This year’s theme is Each for Equal, looking at how equity plays into business. The event, which begins at 1:30 p.m. March 8, is at ZingTrain, 3728 Plaza Drive, Ann Arbor. Registration is available on Eventbrite for $25. Space is limited.

The organizers are all Ann Arbor entrepreneurs who want to bring the community together.

The host of the event, Build Institute, provides an entrepreneurship resource hub by training and creating business plans with a focus on women and people of color. Co-sponsors include Pearl Planning, Zingerman’s Bakehouse, ZingTrain and Engage.

So far, three pop-up shop owners who are Build Institute graduates will have vendor tables for attendees to visit with the option of bringing donations of full-size toiletries for The Women’s Center of Southeast Michigan.

Women Building Connections will start with a networking session led by Brooke Boyle, Engage founder/CEO. She will have small, timed and engaged sessions and wants introverts to know that this activity is made for them.

“My goal is to get people who are different from each other and have never met each other into deeper, meaningful conversations as quickly as possible,” Boyle said.

Four panelists will discuss their entrepreneurship journeys and state of economics. They are April Jones-Boyle, Build Institute founder and executive director; April Anderson, Good Cakes and Bakes co-owner and pastry chef; Whitley Granberry, staff attorney of economic equity practice at the Detroit Justice Center and Gabriela Santiago-Romero, We the People Michigan policy and research director.

“We’re all about supporting women,” Jones-Boyle, said. “We’ll be discussing some of the barriers in entrepreneurship, equitable funding opportunities and pulling in the next generation of entrepreneurs. Also, how can we use our dollars to invest in local businesses and support women-owned businesses by being customers.”

The event i being hosted on International Women’s Day because many Build Institute graduates are women. Scott Stewart, Build Institute development director, said 70 percent of those women are people of color and 65 percent are of low and moderate income. Stewart said they’re often left behind in entrepreneurship.

“The opportunity to collaborate and do something for a cause felt like the celebration would stay and we would be able to magnify the impact and purpose of International Women’s Day,” said Melissa Joy, founder of Pearl Planning.

Organizers hope the event will inspire people to initiate their creations of major businesses to side hustles. Build Institute plans to expand to other cities in efforts to provide resources all over.

“Big business gets developed, which is good and important, but the ground layer of business doesn’t get developed,” said Amy Emberling, Zingerman’s Bakehouse managing partner. “Build helps people who are living in those communities, find ways to open up businesses that can support their families and gives a richness to the community.”

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2020-02-22 13:07:00Z
https://www.mlive.com/news/ann-arbor/2020/02/international-womens-day-panel-to-discuss-local-entrepreneurship-business-planning.html
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