Business
Limerick Businesswoman of the Year Awards 2020 goes virtual
Limerick Businesswoman of the Year Awards 2020 finalists have been announced. Pictured above is Hannah Wrixon, CEO, Get the Shifts, who won the Emerging Business Award at regional and national level in 2019. She’s with Network Ireland Limerick past president Catriona O’Donoghue and Patrick O’Sullivan, awards judge.
Limerick Businesswoman of the Year Awards 2020 goes virtual
Karen Brosnahan, Shannon Regional Conference & Sports Bureau who has been nominated in the ‘Power Within’ Category. Picture: Cian Reinhardt /ilovelimerick
The finalists of the Limerick Businesswoman of the Year Awards 2020 have been announced.
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Because of public health restrictions, the virtual awards ceremony, which will feature guest speaker Dr Sinead Kane will be streamed online from the Savoy Hotel on August 27.
Representing a broad range of businesses, everything from garden centres to hotels to professional services.
The Network Ireland Limerick Businesswoman of the Year Awards, sponsored by LEO Limerick and AIB, will be hotly contested by 24 businesswomen across 5 categories this year.
Entries were spread across 5 categories: Business Innovation, Emerging New Business, Solo Businesswoman, Transformative Employee and the ‘Power Within’ Champion. Most categories are new this year and were introduced to recognise the unprecedented challenges presented by the pandemic; transforming how a business operates while caring for family and others, remote working, coping with a period of isolation or all of the above.
The winners of each award category will go on to compete at the Network Ireland National Businesswoman of the Year Awards which will be announced on October 2nd. This event will also combine live, on-stage and streaming elements. Several Limerick branch members have been successful in the past and include Hannah Wrixon, Get the Shifts, who took home a national award in 2019 and Caroline Dunlea of Core Optimisation in 2018.
Speaking about the upcoming regional awards, Petrina Hayes, President of Network Ireland Limerick said, “Our annual Businesswoman of the Year Awards have been transformed this year to reflect the vastly altered working world in which we all find ourselves. 2020 has become a time for reflection, drawing on the power within ourselves to transform and create a new way forward. We are delighted to have the opportunity to acknowledge our members who have demonstrated how strong, capable, and courageous they are in a time of crisis.”
Special guest speaker at the Limerick awards night will be Dr Sinead Kane, an international Visually Impaired motivational speaker and ultramarathon runner.
The finalists of the Network Ireland Limerick Businesswoman of the Year Awards for 2020 are:
Emerging New Business
Breda Deedigan, Deedigan HR Services
Aisling Stack, Namaste Skin clinic & Urban Day Spa
Aisling Finn, Lingweezy
Aoife McNamara, AOIFE Ireland
Elizabeth Andrzejewska, MUSH Cupcake Specialist
Denise Brazil, Bedford Townhouse
Amanda Sawyer, Irish Girl in Brooklyn
Business Innovation
Patricia Roberts, No 1 Pery Square Townhouse, Restaurant & Spa
Bernie Carroll, Student Programmes Ireland Ltd
Neisha Aherne, Catwalk Hair Consultancy
Fiona Doyle, Fiona Doyle Personal Stylist & Image Consultant
Monica Forde, The Bookkeeper
Lynda Sheehan, Rockbarton Garden Centre
Solo Business Woman
Charanjeet Marwha, KAYA Brows & Beauty
Fiona Brennan, Success Coach & Project Manager
Andrea Moran, Wig Specialist
Ursula Stokes, Ursula Stokes Agency
Moira Geary, Moira Geary Ltd
Transformative Employee
Lyndsey Hall, Piquant Media
Lorna Horgan, University of Limerick Conference & Sports Campus
Aishling Casey, Limerick Strand Hotel
Sophie LaTouche, 101 O’Connell Street
Power Within
All of the above PLUS
- Susan Pena, Villiers Schools
- Karen Brosnahan, Shannon Regional Conference & Sports Bureau
Event Details:
Date: Thursday 27 August, Savoy Hotel, Limerick
Time: 7pm Wine & Canapé Reception, followed by guest speaker Dr Sinead Kane and awards presentation
Bookings: Places are limited to the finalists and judges
About the Awards:
Network Ireland Businesswoman of the Year Awards celebrate the excellence, professionalism, vision and leadership of its members. Regional branch winners are put forward to compete at the Network Ireland National Business Awards. The regional Network Ireland Branch Businesswoman of the Year Awards take at separate events throughout the country. The Network Ireland National Businesswoman of the Year Awards will take place at a Gala Ceremony in October.
A huge congratulations to Andrea Farrelly from Skin and Bodyworks, Siobhan Daly from Siobhan Daly designs, Sinead Kieran…
Posted by Network Ireland on Friday, August 7, 2020
About the Speaker:
Keynote Speaker, Double PhD doctorate, Double Guinness World Record holder, Freelance Researcher, Visually Impaired Athlete, & Qualified Lawyer.
Sinead doesn’t let her disability hold her back and is living life to the full. Within the space of three months, Sinead Kane was awarded two PhD doctorates. In October 2017, she received an honorary PhD from the National University of Ireland. In December 2017, she was awarded her academic PhD from Dublin City University.
Sinead also is a double Guinness World Record Holder. In February 2018 she broke the Guinness World Record for furthest distance for a female on a treadmill in 12 hours. See these links Sinead is also the holder of a Guinness World Record for being the first blind person to complete a marathon on each of the seven Continents, a feat which she completed in less than 7 days in January 2017.
She is also the first Irish female to do the world marathon challenge. Sinead and her guide runner [John] completed their first Marathon of this challenge at Union Glacier, Antarctica followed by running a Marathon in Punta Arenas (South America), Miami (North America), Madrid (Europe), Marrakech (Africa), Dubai (Asia) and finally Sydney (Oceania).
Sinead came joint-first in her marathon in Dubai. This is all remarkable given that Sinead only did her first marathon ever in October 2014 and only took up running in April 2012.
The above achievements are admirable but are even more so when one considers that Sinead only has 5% vision and is registered as legally blind. Sinead has overcome a lot of adversity throughout her life and now wants to help others. Sinead proves how those who persist in spite of a disability can develop determination, motivation, and creativity.
About Network Ireland Limerick:
Network Ireland Limerick provides a forum where women in business, the professions and the Arts can exchange business ideas and increase their business contacts. It encourages women to achieve more satisfying careers and promotes women as worthy contributors to the Irish economy. Network Ireland Limerick is a branch of Network Ireland, a national organisation driving the personal and professional development of women with over 1,000 members, across 15 branches nationwide.
Network Ireland Limerick holds monthly networking meetings where a guest speaker is invited to educate, inform and entertain on topics of interest to women. Members can develop and pool their individual skills through interaction with other women in a supportive environment which offers, training, mentoring and an opportunity for women who call on other members with specialist expertise for help. It also provides a forum for established women to develop professional and social contacts.
Network Ireland Limerick is sponsored by the Local Enterprise Offices in Limerick. The Local Enterprise Office is the First Stop Shop for anyone seeking information and support on starting or growing a business in Ireland.
AIB are partners with Network Ireland and support the organisation at both a national and regional level.
For more information on the Local Enterprise Office, click HERE
For more stories on Limerick Businesswomen, click HERE
