THE celebration continues in creative ways. After looking at the beautiful display for the preview of the I AM Collection, I decided to invite Vanda’s Designs, Nature Luv, Enchanted Gardens A&J Creations, Lizzy’s Diverse Anguli, Purple Heart Organics,Magnificent Fragrance,CJ Pepper, David’s Creation and Beckeys’s Blessings. The event was called Unique Selling Promotions. I constantly try to create a platform for small businesses, especially those without a store front, to generate sales and the exposure to build a client base. These businesses are anxiously awaiting the Women in Business Expo on March 30 and 31. Check out the women in business FB page for details and a chance to win daily prizes.

INSPIRE YOU is also on the agenda but with a twist. The Women in Business International (WIBI) will be hosting this virtual event this year.

I partnered with Dr Sabeeta Bidasie-Singh to launch this new business venture, “Women in Business International” (WIBI), in tandem with International Women’s Month – March 2022.

Dr Sabeeta Bidasie-Singh is the CEO of Cardinal Services, a Houston-based management consultancy and technology provider, who believes in the power of disruptive innovation in providing solutions to workplace problems. Cardinal’s model is built around emerging technology that delivers an immersive experience. Sabeeta has lived and worked throughout the Caribbean and on four continents, so her differential is firmly rooted in a local flavour with the international focus. She has spent the greater part of the last 15 years consulting for governments all over the world in the transformation push.

Women In Business International (WIBI) exists to connect women entrepreneurs and female-owned businesses to international markets. We are both passionate about building local capacity, and so WIBI is an organic evolution of their desire to create opportunities to empower, encourage, and inspire women as part of a global village. Women In Business International will leverage the power of technology to foster collaborations using digital networks. The nucleus of this initiative is really about women’s economic empowerment and the drive to make this a social and economic imperative. With ongoing concerns around the business case for diversity and equality in the corporate sector, women entrepreneurship is shattering the “leaky pipeline” and “glass walls” phenomena. “Sonia and I fundamentally believe that women are natural connectors, collaborators and love the power of teams. Their passion is seeing other women win and celebrating those successes,” Sabeeta said

We have had fantastic line-ups over the year for this event, but this year we are taking it a notch higher. This is the amazing line-up:

Sarona Samaroo is the Vice-President of the recruitment and manpower agency, El Dorado Offshore. Sarona currently manages and oversees all operations for El Dorado Offshore regionally. El Dorado Offshore has entities incorporated in Guyana, Trinidad, and Suriname due to the oil-and-gas exploration and discoveries there. Under her leadership, the EDO teams in each country were able to rapidly scale up El Dorado Offshore’s business. Sarona is a strong advocate for Youth Development and Female Empowerment in the workplace at all levels.

Dr Natasha Gaskin-Peters, Director, Centre for Local Business Development – Natasha is an Economist with experience in both micro and macroeconomics. Natasha’s experience covers the real and fiscal sectors, which include modelling and forecasting of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), fiscal revenues, fiscal expenditure, and inflation, along with analytics on the interlinkages between these two sectors. Presently, Natasha works with local companies in Guyana to assist them in entering the oil-and-gas value chain.

Dr Auliana Poon is Germany-based and heads Leve-Global. She is a courageous and passionate businesswoman. Auliana Poon established Caribbean Futures Limited that became Tourism Intelligence International in 1990; Villa Being, Tobago, in 2000; Being Sustainable in 2010; the Tourism Intelligence Academy in 2015; Lévé -the event in 2016 and Leve-Global, which aims to cooperatively elevate Tourism, Trade and Lives, in 2018. A trained Economist, Dr. Auliana Poon graduated with a B.A. (hons.) and M.Sc. (Economics) from the was the first person in the world to qualify with a doctorate in Technology and Tourism.

Mireille Toulekima is an Award-winning Australia-based global entrepreneur, Thought Leader, Global Influencer, Global Energy and STEM consultant, Women empowerment advocate and champion, international speaker, published author and online talk show host and producer. A Petroleum Engineer who gained experience working for more than 25 years in Africa, Europe, Asia and Australia in a range of technical and leadership roles for major oil, gas and energy companies, she published four books. She has lived and worked across four continents and carries out empowerment work internationally. Mireille is the managing director of the Perth Australia-based company MT Energy Resources, Global Chair Engineering of the eminent and prestigious G100 Club (comprising some of the most powerful and influential top 100 women leaders in the world).

Dr Safeeya Mohammed is the CEO of SISU Global Wellness and pioneers a Wellness Revolution in Trinidad and Tobago. Motivated by the overwhelming burdens of ill health, escalating NCDs and unwellness in the Caribbean, Dr Mohammed aligns her organizational consultancy to the United Nations SDG 3. SISU Global Wellness bridges the science of physical activity, nutrition, sleep hygiene, stress management and other healthy habits, empowering individuals to *Consciously create equanimity.* She added co-author to her portfolio in 2018, contributing her personal story of resilience to the transformational anthology: Woman Across Borders, curated by best-selling author, Dr. Sonia Noel, Founder, Women’s Association for Sustainable Development, Guyana.

Richard Young is a Caribbean creative impresario who has worked extensively in the region and Diaspora directing and producing fashion/arts/beauty/culture-related projects for the past 30 years. He has become one of the most sought-after cultural industry specialists/creative strategists in the region, and he will be the moderator for this empowering virtual event.

The event will be streamed in the Caribbean, USA, South Africa and Australia

You have a chance to have a front-row seat as we continue to celebrate History Month and this journey called Life BEYOND THE RUNWAY.