Event Report
A packed audience of passionate, ambitious women entrepreneurs with growth on their minds gathered together in Johannesburg on the morning of 6 March for the second Lioness Lean In event of the year - and what an inspirational morning it was. The event provided the perfect early celebration of International Women’s Day, and what better way of marking the occasion than with a gathering of 150 amazing women entrepreneurs, all looking to share, inspire and connect.
On the morning of 6 March, spirits were high and conversation was quickly flowing as women entrepreneurs in Johannesburg came together for the second in the series of Lioness Lean In events in South Africa. The venue was once again the wonderful Volkswagen Group (our Lioness Lean In South Africa partners) space in the heart of Sandton, and it was buzzing. MC for the morning was once again Hlubi Mboya-Arnold, our Lioness Lean In Ambassador Southern Africa. She welcomed everyone to the event and reminded the audience that women entrepreneurs are the key drivers of socio-economic change and impact in the Southern African region and are to be celebrated for the contribution they are making in all aspects of business and society.
Hlubi Mboya-Arnold, Lioness Lean In Ambassador Southern Africa
Hlubi also took the opportunity to announce that Lionesses of Africa has reached a new milestone - we now have over 1 million women entrepreneurs in our community - and growing at a rate of 30,000 new women entrepreneurs joining us each month, in all 54 African countries and in the Diaspora - that’s a lot of fellow women entrepreneurs to connect with and do business with. And, that’s worth celebrating!! She also took the opportunity to thank Volkswagen South Africa for once again partnering with Lionesses of Africa to host these high impact events for women entrepreneurs in South Africa.
Next to the speaker podium and to provide some wonderful inspiration for all those attending, in celebration of International Women’s Day, was Dr Rufaro Nyamuda. She is the recipient of the Volkswagen Touareg Sabbatical and created an app for children to essentially look after themselves during a medical emergency. At the end of last year, Volkswagen South Africa started the initiative, encouraging South Africans to submit their ideas for a three-month sabbatical. An estimated 1 300 entries were received, each from people who wanted to help an individual or community of people. Dr Rufaro’s idea had the potential to make a significant impact in South Africa. She said: “I would regularly see parents come into the emergency department with their children not knowing what to do. Something serious may have happened and they would feel this serious amount of guilt. It just made me realize that we spend all this time educating adults on how to keep children safe but we don’t educate children.Thus the idea for Keep Safe was born. The app is now designed to teach parents and schools but also children how to keep themselves and others safe.”
Lionesses of Africa founder and ceo, Melanie Hawken, spoke to the audience via videolink and announced two new initiatives for the women entrepreneurs in Johannesburg to be part of. The first was the announcement of a new research project being undertaken by Lionesses of Africa, supported by Absa, to look at the impact made by women entrepreneurs in South Africa on job creation. The second was the announcement of the latest in a series of Lioness Enterprise events aimed at connecting high growth women entrepreneurs with access to finance, access to new markets, and access to business advisory services. She encouraged everyone in the audience to make the most of such opportunities to growth their knowledge and their businesses.
L-R: Dr Rufaro Nyamuda, Helen Viljoen, Shamilah Damons
A Lioness Lean In event is all about sharing our experiences as women entrepreneurs; it’s about sharing our business building journeys; it’s talking about our challenges, our highs and lows; and inspiring one another. That’s why we invite some of the most interesting and inspirational women entrepreneurs from the Lionesses of Africa community to come and share their startup stories with audiences at each of our Lioness Lean In events. The women entrepreneurs showcased at the Lioness Lean In Johannesburg event came from a wide range of business sectors, they are at different stages of their entrepreneurial journeys, but they all share one thing in common - they are building businesses and brands that are exciting and on the move.
The first inspirational woman entrepreneur to share her startup story on the morning was Shamilah Damons, founder of Shammah Innovative Solutions. Shamilah started her digital business back in 2015, providing specialist expertise to her clients in the fields of data management, data quality, advance analytics, business intelligence, reporting and digitisation. In fact, she is a font of knowledge on all things digital.
The second entrepreneur sharing her story during the morning was Silindile Ngono, founder of Enhle Flora. After a successful corporate career, Silindile became an entrepreneur as a florist, completely self-taught. Her main focus has been creating daily occasional flower displays and gifting, for both the public and corporates. In 2018, she also launched a brand of baby organic wear inspired by her second born Ziphezinhle. She now works to grow these brands.
The third and final inspirational speaker for the morning was an entrepreneur with a big vision. Aurelie Kapinga-Tshimbombo is the founder of Afrinique-Chic, a luxury lifestyle and fashion brand. She went from a career in the diplomatic corps to becoming a fashionpreneur. She carries a mandate to impact society by creating garments of change. Her brand truly aspires to inspire by creating tailor-made pieces so that each client feels like a masterpiece, allowing what resonates inwardly to be fully portrayed outwardly.
L-R: Robyn Keet, Silindile Ngono, Aurelie Kapinga-Tshimbombo
After three truly inspirational stories shared by members of the Lionesses of Africa community, it was time for the most popular feature in our Lioness Lean In event programme - Lioness Launch. It’s the time when we can introduce women entrepreneurs who are launching and creating new products and services that everyone should know about. Firstly, Robyn Keet of Inner Voice Creative, an organisation that specialises in photographic exhibitions and photography marketing workshops, shared news of her “I am A Creative Nomad” venture. She received an enthusiastic response to her presentation and won over new fans to her venture. The next Lioness Launch featured entrepreneur was Helen Viljoen, founder of Nebu, a beautiful business and brand specialising in the creation fo 24 carat gold jewellery. She introduced her spectacular Nebu Classic and Conservation collections at the event.
To round off this section of the programme, MC Hlubi Mboya-Arnold invited the audience to participate in the popular Lioness Launch Open Mike part of the programme. She invited 10 women entrepreneurs from the audience to come up and introduce their new products and services they are launching - in just 1 minute each. As always, the warm response and encouragement from the audience helped the women entrepreneurs along as they pitched their businesses.
Lioness Launch Open Mike pitch presenters
The morning’s event was brought to a close by Hlubi speaking about how women entrepreneurs can join the Lionesses of Africa community and start accessing all the tools and resources available. She informed the audience that they would all receive their copies of the Good Morning Lionesses daily newsletter and our new Lioness Weekender digital magazine to help keep them in touch with everything that is happening in our Lioness world. Hlubi took the opportunity to say a big thank you to all the wonderful speakers from the morning’s event, and our impact partner Volkswagen South Africa for making this event possible. And, of course, a big thank you to all the women entrepreneurs who took the decision to spend their time with at the event. The final part of the programme was the Prize Giveaway, with some fantastic prizes being donated and presented by the women entrepreneur speakers and the team at Volkswagen SA.
For more information on forthcoming Lioness Lean In events, go to http://www.lionessesofafrica.com/lioness-lean-in-series
