The women of Ladies of Influence having a blast (Terri-Ann Richards)
Saint John’s Ladies of Influence networking group will have its inaugural Night of Influence Awards Gala celebrating women in business, leadership and executive positions on March 12th.
“There’s a lot of women in business, but there’s not a lot of women in business having conversations with women in business,” said Terri-Ann Richards, gala organizer and networking group administrator.
“Women are typically not running multi-million-dollar companies locally and so having them be in a place where they can connect, they also grow at a much faster level.”
She explains the goal of the gala is to shine a light on and give more exposure smaller businesses, entrepreneurs and leaders that other awards don’t necessarily cover.
A Ladies of Influence, young and wise (Terri-Ann Richards)
“Typically when you’re winning an award, you’re winning at based on years in business, but it’s also the dollars that are hitting the bottom line, Richards said. “This award ceremony is not focused on just dollars, it’s focused on impact; impact in your community, impact on your fellow female.”
The gala has four award categories, The Lady of Resilience, The Lady of Community, The Lady to Watch and The Lady of Leadership, for a total of fifteen women nominated across the categories. An estimated 65-to-75 people will be attending the gala, which were in line with expectations.
Richards, who calls herself a serial entrepreneur, coaches female entrepreneurs and leaders through her company Balance Equation Coaching & Consulting and will be the gala’s keynote speaker.
“I guess I would say the topic would be on grit, having passion and perseverance, head on will help you through business but it’ll also help you through life,” she said. “There will be some stories of some failures of mine that I’ll be speaking on, the learnings that have come out of it but why I feel like being part of a community, being part of something bigger having a bigger ‘why’ than yourself makes all the difference in your business and in your life.”
Richards said she would like to get bigger names as keynote speakers for future galas, as well as an increase in attendees to the hundreds and to have men participate in the gala.
A Ladies of Influence meetup (Terri-Ann Richards)
“I think there’s so much inspiration that comes from being surrounded by that many strong, powerful women,” she adds. “A lot of these women get to do what they do because they probably have strong, confident men that are behind them.”
The purpose of the gala is to encourage women to get out of their shells and show that it is possible to do great things in Saint John. Through talking more with other people going through the same things, events such as the awards gala gives support to businesswomen of all sizes.
“Women can’t have it all in the way that it was once said, but they certainly can have it all together when they have a community that surrounds them,” said Richards.
The gala will take place at the Riverside Golf and Country Club from 5:30-9:00 PM with Saint John musician Jaclyn Reinhart performing at the event.
