Women Outside The Box – the first ever major women’s business event to be held in Bristol – takes place on 8 October 2012, 10am to 4pm, at the Arnolfini and M Shed. This free-to-attend day offers advice on starting up and growing a business as well as demystifying some of the issues that face the modern female entrepreneur. The event is the first of its kind in the UK and combines business with some of the fun activities that women love, like pampering and beauty treatments.

There are now over 100 people already registered to attend and the organisers are expecting 1,000 women to attend on the day.

Companies who want to promote their services to the business women attending can now book exhibition stands. There is also a busy market area where mumpreneurs can sell family, fashion and food items.

Joni Farthing Director of Women Outside The Box explains the story behind the event:
“I originally arranged an event called The Bristol 100 back in March, to support International Women’s Day. The response was overwhelming. Once those hundred women started networking there was no stopping them. People were asking why there weren’t more large-scale business events like that for women in Bristol. That’s how the idea came about. I believe feeling oneself to be part of something big gives us all the confidence to be ambitious. It’s important that women starting out have the chance to meet with others who are already successful. But when it comes time to grow their company women can often get stuck. So there’ll be a lot of help through workshops and clinics on this subject at the festival.”

Research carried out by Enterprising Women in 2011 shows that “a significant proportion of women feel they are held back from achieving their full potential by the struggle to achieve a work life balance (39%). This is a continuing major challenge, particularly for females running micro businesses who have family/caring responsibilities. Despite this, 59% of respondents manage to network regularly to overcome isolation.”

Joni outlines some of the main issues for women who run businesses:
“For women in particular it is really important they get support and grow their network to succeed in business, whether that’s for help with their childcare arrangements or finding suppliers they have confidence in. Women also tend to make business relationships in a very different way from men as we enjoy finding common ground, empathising and working collaboratively.”

The cost of a trade space at the business exhibition is £200 plus VAT.

The cost of a stall in the G2G market for food, fashion, family, beauty, weddings and home businesses costs £50 + VAT and sharers are welcome.

The Enterprising Women Research Growth Report 2011 was created to help female entrepreneurs who have the ambition and aspiration to take their business to the next level, yet progress still eludes them. It can be found at:

http://www.enterprising-women.org/static/ew_growthreport.pdf

For all press enquiries please contact Melissa Neill at HYPR 0845 347 0027 melissa@hy-pr.co.uk

To view more details about the event please visit the “Women Outside The Box” event listing on the eckhoBristol events page: http://www.eckhobristol.com/events.php?page=event-details&event-id=610