Five female entrepreneurs have been recruited by the organisers of National Women’s
Enterprise Day on November 19th, to help boost the number of women setting up their own
businesses in Ireland.

The stories of the home-grown entrepreneurs, who all run their own established
businesses in different parts of the country, will be showcased in front of 300
delegates at a major conference in Limerick that day, to inspire confidence in other
women and help bridge the gender divide.

Although the County and City Enterprise Boards have supported nearly 13,500 female
entrepreneurs in 2009, 1000 more than in 2008, men are still almost three times more
likely than women to set up their own business in Ireland.

To help address this imbalance, Donna Daly Blyth from Donna’s Dance Studio in Cork,
Alison Boardman from Unique Voice Language Institute in Kerry, Ann Marie Durkin from
Shasta in Longford, Alison Ritchie from Polar Ice in Laois and Jennifer Ryan from
Pónaire Roastery in Limerick have been invited by the County and City Enterprise Boards
to share their experiences, challenges and advice with other women on November 19th.

“Research from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor shows that women who know an
entrepreneur are five times more likely to become an entrepreneur themselves,” said
Georgina Sweetnam of the County and City Enterprise Boards’ Organising Committee.
“Through profiling the success stories of female entrepreneurs in Ireland on National
Women’s Enterprise Day, we hope to encourage more women to seek out new business
opportunities by setting up their own business,” she added.

Co-funded by the European Social Fund with support from the Department of Community,
Equality and Gaeltacht Affairs through the Equality for Women Measure, the aim of
National Women’s Enterprise Day is to give national recognition to the role of female
entrepreneurship.

The founder of the UK High Street Chain Coffee Republic, Sahar Hashemi, is one of the
keynote speakers, along with local entrepreneur and hotelier, Mary Fitzgerald and Ivan
Yates, broadcaster and founder of Celtic Bookmakers. The Minister of State for
Equality, Integration and Human Rights, Ms Mary White, T.D. has been invited to
officially open the conference, which takes place at the Strand Hotel in Limerick.

Tickets cost €100 each and are available to buy through www.nwed.ie.  The conference
also includes an exhibition of enterprise support agencies, one-to-one mentoring
clinics and networking sessions.

We still provide you with the same language services – Language Teaching, Translation and Interpreting. If you are a new student, please do our free Online English Test, or if you are looking for a quote for our translation service, please use the Quote service on the site, or drop in and see us in our new office!

Meet the UVLI team on our Jan/Feb 2010 Newsletter (and get some spelling tips!)
Best regards,
Alison

Alison Boardman
Director
Unique Voice Language Institute
1 Greenview Terrace,
Tralee,
Co. Kerry.
alison@unique-voice.com
www.unique-voice.com
Tel: 066 7190554
Mob: 087 6220403

We were delighted to get the contract with the Insitute of Technology to teach English to the pre medical students from Saudi Arabia.  It has kept Alison out of the office….(!) along with 3 other teachers.  We had great fun and learnt a lot from them too! 

Our regular Cambridge English classes were full and we also had fun in our beginner Spanish class – well done Maria!

Keep an eye on the website for new language courses happening in Tralee in July.

Have a great summer!
Alison