SEWN Socializer
10 tables of 10. You do the math. Can you believe that 100 women gathered to the first Self-Employed Women’s Network (SEWN) Socializer 2015 event at the Sunshine Coast Golf & Country Club on October 8th? At first, I was not optimistic. We had only a few weeks to gain enough momentum to get at least 50 people to attend the dinner to make the event worthwhile. To my surprise we had 74 for dinner and 26 to the socializer only. We had to say “no” to a few individuals as we reached full-capacity. This is a great problem to have and it is clear that socializer events like this is something that entrepreneurial women on the Sunshine Coast are craving.
SEWN is a grassroots initiative that first started with the Community Resource Centre’s Progress Plan, a 3-year Status of Women’s Project focus on the economic well-being of women on the Sunshine Coast. One area of focus in the project was income. I had joined the Progress Plan team in its last year as a Project Assistant. I was tasked with the income strand and the idea of creating a network for women in business. Isolation was identified as a barrier for women in business. During the Progress Plan, we had implemented two SEWN gatherings, one at the Gibsons Public Market and the other at Persephone’s Brewing. Both events were well attended.
When the project ended in April, Cheryl McNicol and I opted to continue the work of SEWN as an unincorporated association, a not-for-profit organization that is volunteer oriented and member driven. We were so pleased to know that people like Shelley McDade, the CEO of the Sunshine Coast Credit Union, was willing to help and support us with our first steps. We created our inaugural SEWN board of directors, which includes Kim Banks, Liz Down, and Charlene Sanjenko. All of us are self-employed women and invested in connecting and supporting entrepreneurial women on the Sunshine Coast. Each of us bring an expertise to the table.
The work of the SEWN board of directors over the last several months have been working on our governance, constitution, bylaws, and our mission, vision, and goals. For more information on this, go to our website at www.sunshinesewn.com. We took time from our busy schedules to meet on a monthly basis to collaborate, create, and co-construct something that supports, educates, and connects entrepreneurial women on the Sunshine Coast. We are a volunteer board serving SEWN members.
We surveyed those who are SEWN followers. These people were involved in the Progress Plan, particularly with SEWN, and those who are early adopters of SEWN. We listened to the data and contributed our expertise to create something that we are proud of with hopes of supporting entrepreneurial women on the Sunshine Coast. After months of deliberation, we decided to jump in with two feet to create our first SEWN socializer, as a membership drive and announcement of SEWN.
We put a call out for those who indicated in our database who would like to get more involved with SEWN. We easily established an event committee for the SEWN Socializer 2015. Another group of busy entrepreneurial women said YES to SEWN. We gathered at my home to make final plans for the evening. Needless to say, much had changed from August 2015 to October 2015. Intentions had changed, start dates had changed, focus had changed, and plans had changed. The best part, we were willing to be nimble and adaptive, like any entrepreneurial person, to make it happen.
SEWN partnered up with Share-There online ride share service, a NEW social enterprise on the Sunshine Coast, with Michelle and Sean Morton for registrations and ride sharing. We wanted to support them with their beta test. We collaborated with Share-There with planning and registration. They had hopes of announcing their business as well as acquire memberships and ride shares. Albeit, there were some glitches. That is to be expected. It was a beta test (aka. learning opportunity). Thank you SEWN Socializer attendees for participating the the beta test and providing feedback. This helps Share-There to take their next steps in their business.
Through social media and word of mouth, one by one, tickets were sold. The evening was constructed into two parts: the dinner and socializer at $35/person or socializer only at $10/person. We wanted to make the event accessible to all women. We gathered. We displayed our promotional materials. We socialized. Doors opened at 5 pm. Dinner started at 545 pm. Socializer started at 7 pm. We promoted SEWN and SEWN memberships, but also we had an educational component to the evening… WHAT’S YOUR PITCH. The night was a hit and I am so happy everything worked out in the end. The biggest lesson is the “power of we.” We all made this happen… the SEWN board, event committee, sponsors, partners and contributors, and attendees.
I want to take a moment to thank our amazing SEWN event partners, sponsors, and contributors. Thank you Sunshine Coast Community Futures. We appreciated having Zarah Gale as a presenter but also as our ad hoc tech person. Thank you to Head Start Public Speaking for Kids for also presenting at our event to figure out our why and 30-second pitch. Thank you Sunshine Coast Golf & Country Club. We had great service and great food at a great venue. Thank you to Coastal Weddings & Events for the beautiful decorations and table settings. Thank you to Hooray Truffles by Alanna for the yummy vegan chocolates. Thank you to the Sunshine Coast Credit Union for being a event corporate sponsor but also for your generosity with pens, pads, phone pockets with $200 for new SCCU memberships, and $500 door prize. Thank you to PowHERtalks and Christine Younghusband for being SEWN sponsors… and thank you to McLachlan Studios for taking photos during the night and generous door prizes amounting to $1000!!! And… THANK YOU to all those who donated door prizes to the event, who volunteered their time to make the event amazing, SEWN Board of Directors, and coming to the SEWN event. We could not do it without you!!!