1 March 2022

Female Founders: International Women's Day

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Female founders event poster

Canberra Innovation Network are hosting Female Founders: International Women’s Day on Tuesday 8 March. Image: CBRIN.

Join us for a special Female Founders event celebrating International Women’s Day with two inspirational and action-orientated events!

Through the power of collaboration with women-led businesses two inspirational and action-oriented events will be held to celebrate International Women’s Day 2022.

“Gender Equality Today for a Sustainable Tomorrow” panel lead by Serina Bird

With a focus on the UN Women’s 2022 International Women’s Day theme “Gender Equality Today for a Sustainable Tomorrow” Serina Bird will facilitate an interactive panel discussion with key leaders in the space – Sophia Hamblin-Wang, Mia Swainson, Ilea Buffier, and Claire Chesterton.

Serina Bird is a writer, podcaster, youtuber, money coach and above all, a frugalista. Author of The Joyful Frugalista and Founder of the Joyful Business Club and The Joyful Fashionista, she helps people save money and live more meaningful lives through financial empowerment.

Sophia Hamblin-Wang is the Chief Operations Officer of Mineral Carbonation International, a technology platform that transforms carbon dioxide into building materials and other valuable industrial products, and recently won COP26’s The Clean Energy Start-up Pitch Battle. Sophia is also a member of the ACT Climate Change Council, Curator of the Canberra Hub for the Global Shapers, and a Sessional Lecturer at University of Sydney.

Mia Swainson is a qualified environmental engineer, executive coach, strategist and member of the ACT Climate Council. By making one small change at a time, Mia created a paradise of urban sustainability in her family home. She is proof that living greener, simpler and carbon positive is within everyone’s reach. Mia is President of the Canberra Environment Centre and Chair of Canberra’s Zero Waste Revolution. Mia’s book, Happy Planet Living, is due out in September 2022.

Ilea Buffier is the founder of Evalue8 Sustainability, an enviro tech company with the mission of making it easy for all organisations to measure and reduce their carbon footprint. A Climate Active registered consultant and actively involved in the carbon accounting industry since 2005, she is also the owner of Ninetwofive Interiors, which is a dealer for Steelcase, the world’s largest commercial furniture manufacturer.

Claire Chesterton is the co-founder of MIIROKO, a home hair colour company that offers salon-grade hair colour that’s vegan, cruelty free and comes with a reusable kit, sold via a virtual salon. Claire started her career as a hairdresser in Canberra, and then worked for a hair colour company in Sydney before moving to Tokyo to build her very own brand. She aims to set a new standard for beauty companies in both sustainability and inclusivity.

Interactive Workshop for Innovation

“Break the Bias” is the Internationalwomensday.com 2022 theme this year. Looking through the lens of innovation and entrepreneurship and how we can Break the Bias, the CBRIN team will deliver a one hour, interactive workshop to provide practical activities, empower participants and challenge assumptions on how this can be done.

Female Founders events are a fantastic opportunity to connect with and hear from inspiring women in Canberra working on their businesses and passions.

This is an in-person event. Lunch will be provided.

This event is a woman-focused event that intends an inclusive definition of women. We welcome trans women, nonbinary, gender non-conforming, and anyone who identifies as a woman in a way that is significant to them.

The details

What: Female Founders – International Women’s Day
When: Tuesday 8 March 2022, 12 pm to 2 pm
Where: Canberra Innovation Network, Level 5, 1 Moore Street, Canberra City
Cost: $16.42, tickets available from Eventbrite.

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