Over 35 local women in business gathered on Thursday, November 8 at NERAM’s Harvest Café for the second last New England Enterprising Women’s (NEEW) breakfast for 2012.
The morning format kicked off with breakfast and the opportunity for networking, followed on by a keynote speech by two local women in business.
PR dynamo Rosemary Mort was the first to take to the floor, garnering laughs and impressing her peers with tales of the prejudice faced as a young mother in the workforce and how she overcame conflicts between her personal and her professional life. With a long and impressive career in the journalism and public relations industry, Ms Mort inspired many at the event with her message to, “always go with your gut feeling” and, where you can, “try to give back to those in a less fortunate position than yourselves” she said.
Anna Lowry of Le Salon, grew up in Armidale and returned from Sydney five years ago to pursue a long-held dream of owning her own hair and beauty salon. One of the youngest members of the NEEW, Ms Lowry outlined how Armidale’s supportive community and events such as the NEEW’s breakfast series have made the difficulties faced by being in retail that much easier. Ms Lowry spoke to the audience of her quiet determination and vision for the future, saying she is “still dreaming big” and couldn’t be happier with her decision to relocate back to Armidale. Ms Lowry peppered her speech with examples of lessons learnt from being a small business owner and her message for others following a similar path was to not give up and that, “sometimes success takes a little bit longer and comes in a few different forms”.
Once again, Rowan Tihema and Thomas Berstad provided a superb European style breakfast that included fresh fruit with yogurt, free-range poached eggs on GoldFish Bowl sourdough and an assortment of locally procured cold meats and pickled vegetables.
The final NEEW’s Christmas Champagne breakfast for 2012 will take place on Thursday, December 6.
