Several hundred people are expected to celebrate International Women’s Day during the third annual Women in Business Expo on Saturday, March 8, 2025.
The six-hour event will showcase women in business from communities like Brantford, the County of Brant, Norfolk County and beyond.
With a tradeshow featuring nearly 60 businesses and organizations, free swag bags for the first 100 people and a photobooth area, there will be plenty of things to check out throughout the event.
Sam Gernhart, event organizer and owner of Clarity Marketing and Design, said that the expo is designed to be an opportunity to network and learn from others.
“It’s just a great way to showcase and network with the women in the business community in the local and surrounding area. Because this is held on International Women’s Day, it’s really meant to be a day of celebrating, connecting and learning from other women. I always say that this is really one big networking event because not only are there other nonprofits and businesses there that you can make a connection with, but it’s also anyone coming through those doors. You never know who you’re going to meet or what it may lead to.”
On top of the ongoing tradeshow, the event will also feature a line up of six guest speakers, including Gernhart to kick off the day.
“This year, I’m talking about websites; why you need a website and the questions to ask if you’re shopping for a website, and then just the different platforms. We’ve also got Stacey Bester and she’s going to be just talking about her journey in becoming a bakery owner. We also have Nadine Kelly, she’s a business consultant similar to me and she’s going to be focusing on microdosing your visibility on social media and just getting yourself out there,” said Gernhart. “Later, we’ll have Korrenne Jensen talking about motivation, getting ready to do something before you’re actually really ready to do it and just pushing yourself to do difficult things. We’ve also got Taylor McConnachie who is talking about reconnecting with your sexual self and how it relates to everyday life and confidence. Lastly, we’ll have Laura Dickson who is a lawyer and she will be talking about her journey going from working for someone and now working on her own.”
While in the past the speaker series and the actual tradeshow separated via a wall, this year everything will be going on in one room so no one misses out on the content.
Gernhart also added that there will likely be more opportunities to shop from vendors this year.
“We definitely have some businesses that actually have products there for sale,” she said. “Some of them did that last year and they did really well, so there is a bit of a shopping component this year, which is going to be really nice too.”
While the event is marketed to celebrate and highlight women, the organizer stressed that the trade show is for everyone.
“All are welcome to come,” said Gernhart. You don’t have to own a business, you don’t have to be a woman, you don’t have to be in the corporate world or anything like that… all are welcome to come out and check out what our community has to offer.”
She said that while overall, she’s in work mode and focusing on tying up the rest of the loose ends before the big event, she’s looking forward to seeing how the event continues to grow.
“Putting on this expo is definitely a lot of work and there’s a lot of different components to it, but we don’t have something like this in the community,” said Gernhart. “Year one showed me that our community needed something like this, it wanted something like this and it wants to utilize something like this too. It’s definitely grown since then so that has just confirmed that we need this type of support and resource in our community, and I’m really looking to forwards to see how we’ve grown come year five.
For those interested in checking out the expo, it will run from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. and will take place at the Affinity Conference Centre. Admission to attend is free. To learn more about the event, please visit: https://womeninbusinessexpo.ca/
Kimberly De Jong’s reporting is funded by the Canadian government through its Local Journalism Initiative.The funding allows her to report rural and agricultural stories from Blandford-Blenheim and Brant County. Reach her at kimberly.dejong@brantbeacon.ca.
