LYNNFIELD — Women entrepreneurs and owners of small businesses in northeastern Massachusetts will meet at Spinelli’s on Wednesday, Sept. 20 for the second edition of the Women’s Business Summit.
The summit is organized by SCORE, an organization dedicated to helping small businesses in the area find their footing. SCORE Northeast Massachusetts Vice Chair Adrian Leighton attributed the event’s return to a successful first-year outing.
“Last year we had our first Women’s Business Summit, and it was a success because we have very few events that cater to small-business women entrepreneurs” Leighton said. “Last year was a complete sellout with rave reviews. Due to an early sellout, we had a long waiting list as well. So it was very successful.”
According to Leighton, the event aims to provide women with a space for discussion and advice, as well as growth in the industries they are a part of.
“Through our summit, we are aiming to inspire women,” Leighton said. “Our goal is to give the women a panel to share their experiences, best practices, and learnings with other small-business entrepreneurs. We work with small businesses that are either starting up or are already in business and they’re trying to grow or are facing challenges. We provide complimentary advisory services to them.”
The event will begin with a speech from keynote speaker Mary Anne Clancy, senior vice president of marketing and communications at Institution for Savings and former mayor of Newburyport. The speech will be followed by a panel of local businesswomen sharing the struggles, challenges, and roadblocks they have faced in their entrepreneurial journeys.
“All these women work in particularly male-dominated fields,” Leighton said. “Someone owns an insurance business, which typically has more men in the industry. So she will have several examples of challenges that she’s faced and how she has overcome them. As we know, there are so many predispositions toward women. We want to address those discussions as well.”
SCORE decided to convene in Lynnfield due to the town’s central location in northeastern Massachusetts.
“We’re all the way up to the northeast coast of Newburyport and Salisbury,” Leighton said. “We go down as far as Revere. We kind of have an interesting geographic blueprint. We’re coastal as well. Lynnfield represents a central location for small businesswomen to gather.”
