Tell us a little bit about the Emerging Women in Business Event.

Well the conference basically was started as a spin-off from the Women’s Summit that’s held annually at Bryant University. It’s held under the direction of Kati Machtley. I’d been to that for a few years. And I sat down with Carol Malysz from the Center of Women and Enterprise as well and Kati and we said we really have to bring this info into the inner city and to the urban community, urban core, for low, lower moderate income women and more specifically women of color as well to be able to access the same information really regarding business opportunities and structuring your business and starting and growing a business. So that’s really the mission of the conference, to actually provide resources for women who otherwise might not know where to go or might not have the opportunity to be able to explore what they need to really strengthen their businesses.

Yes and what a great partnership between you and the Center for Women and Enterprise.

Yes it’s great because they obviously have the clientele and the resources already set up to help women to prepare to go into business as well as to stay in business and so it’s a really nice fit as far as working with the Center for Women and Enterprise and all they have to bring to the table.

Where and when is the event?

Going to be held June 12 at Rhode Island College on Mount Pleasant Ave and it’s going to be held from 3-9—we specifically want to have it later in the day because we know a lot of the women who either want to go into business or are in business really commit their day basically to either full time jobs or running the business and we want them to have an opportunity after that time to be able to come to the conference without really having to really sacrifice time at work.

That’s great, a wonderful model. What can people expect to see and do?

We have a wonderful key note speaker which is also part of this particular model around motivation and really hearing a good story about how you can go from working out of your basement to having a multimillion dollar corporation such as Sandra Ruiz-Desai. She is the founder of Desai Communications which is basically a marketing promotional company that services Fortune 500 companies such as Pepsico.

I’ve heard Sandra speak before and she is fantastic. She’s got a great sense of humor and great stories and I was very excited to see her on the agenda.

Yeah, she’s such a wonderful person the first time we talked we talked for about an hour and everyone says the same thing, “Oh what a dynamic personality she is!” So we’re really excited about having her there. And she’ll bring all of her wisdom and know-how to be able to communicate that to the women who are attending. In addition we’re going to have translation available for those who have Spanish as their first language so if you’ve signed up early we’ll be able to accommodate those women who want to have a translate in Spanish. We also, beyond that, we have 8 workshops going on, 2 of them exclusively in Spanish with regards to the theme which is Seeds for Success. Seeds for Success—as you know in gardening, there are different stages to really growing seeds into full bloom. And so we have the stages of Prepare, Plant, Nourish, Fertilize and Harvest. And so the workshops are around those stages as they relate to business.

What a great metaphor to use. Yes, because it is so true, you have to go through all those stages.

That’s right. Exactly. So we do have 8 of those workshops going on before the plenary session when Sandra will speak. Then afterwards we have some great speed networking that will be going on, and a wrap-up closing ceremony. In addition, after the keynote, we’re going to have a wonderful panel discussion with someone you know very well involved, Michelle Girasole, and she’s going to be again, speaking in reference to one of these particular phases of business development (Prepare, Plant, Nourish, Fertilize and Harvest) and she will be also accompanied by Vanessa Crum from Charlotte which is a jewelry company, and Ilira Steinman from Rag & Bone Bindery, as well as Sandra Ruiz-Desai. So it will be a great panel discussion with a lot of past experiences, best practices—that will be put forth.

Great. Well we’ll look forward to that. If people want to register or get more info how can they find that?

They can go directly online to www.emergingwomen.biz. It’s $30. They can register right online or if they want to mail in a check they can print out the registration form and mail us in a check prior to June 12.

Great, but all that information—if they can just go to www.emergingwomen.biz they can find it all?

Exactly. There’s also contact info if they want to speak with someone we have a telephone number they can also access.

Great. Well the Sassy Ladies are looking forward to being there.

Oh I know! Well we’re looking forward to having you! And you yourself are in a workshop, which is wonderful, concerning visioning and you’ll be leading women to think about what it is they propose to go into and how you take the next step to do that.

Well it sounds like a great day, and very wonderfully organized and orchestrated, and we’re looking forward to it so we’ll get this word out to all the women in Rhode Island.

Thank you so much.