About 650 attendees gathered at the Hyatt Regency Jacksonville Riverfront for the annual National Association of Women Business Owners’ annual Women’s Business Conference. The three-day event concluded Tuesday.
NAWBO’s goal is to propel female entrepreneurs into more powerful positions by strengthening the wealth capacity of its members, promoting economic development, creating change in business culture, build strategic alliances and transform public policy.
The conference theme was “Our Time is Now.”
“It’s the one time a year they get to see their fellow entrepreneurs from all around the country so they really broaden their networks that way,” said Christina Jorgensen, a member of NAWBO’s communication team.
“There’s a lot of education tracks that are timely topics, so they’re learning something they can take back to improve their business and get to the next level of growth,” she said.
The conference included networking, breakout sessions on social media strategies, management techniques, branding, a public speaking class and panel discussions.
Keynote speakers were Sophia Amoruso, founder of Girlboss; Tiffany Dufu, author of “Drop the Ball” and Jean Chatzy, financial editor of NBC Today and AARP financial ambassador. U.S. Rep. John Rutherford and Assistant Secretary of State Manisha Singh also spoke.
Teresa Meares, president of Jacksonville-based DGG Uniform and Work Apparel, said the organization wanted to start hosting their annual conference in a city where it didn’t have a local chapter. Although Jacksonville has NAWBO members, there’s no chapter.
Meares has been a part of NAWBO for 10 years. She served as chair of its board of directors from 2016-17.
“Because we have such a strong presence of women business owners down here, Jacksonville actually called up and invited them to host in the city,” Meares said. “It was just a perfect fit.”
“So we gathered up a host committee and pulled something off,” she said.
The event’s exhibit hall featured local, state and national exhibitors. Attendees represent small to multi-million dollar companies and came from across the country and as far away as Mexico, Peru, Poland and Kenya.
During downtime, organizers took attendees to Jacksonville landmarks, on walking tours and to attractions, like MOSH.
“It’s a great opportunity to show off the city,” Meares said.
