2014 Mompreneur Conference & Awards Gala

Hundreds of women (and a number of male supporters) came together this past Saturday, March 22, to celebrate the second annual Mompreneur Conference and Awards Gala at the Sheraton Toronto Airport Hotel & Conference Centre, led by Founder and CEO Maria Locker of the Mompreneur Showcase Group Inc. and with a keynote presentation by none other than Ms. Arlene Dickinson, CEO of Venture Communications and the heart and soul of the popular award-winning CBC series Dragon’s Den.

The day was filled with a number of interesting, informative and mostly inspirational workshops and presentations by some very important women, among them Paula Coop McCrory who talked about the Power of Pinterest. Pamela Labelle presented the Road to Entrepreneurship & Refining Success, while Susan Brady led the presentation on “D.A.R.E.” to Dream.  Google Canada’s Wendy Bairos led a very interesting talk on Technology for Women. Panelist Dr. Joey Shulman, who herself faced the Dragons on a recent episode and came out with a deal with Arlene for her now highly successful line of Skinny Chews, headed a presentation on Discovering the Secrets of Health and Weight Loss.

Shortly after noon the crowd started buzzing with eagerness and anticipation and we knew that Arlene was about to take the stage. I personally had only seen Arlene on the show (I watch it on TV religiously) and knew that her appearance is that of a very assertive but calming presence, and her business style (and speaking demeanor as well) is not at all cutthroat, so I was really looking forward to hearing what she had to say. She spoke at length about her own story and told of her journey to becoming the woman she is today. She had anecdote after anecdote of hardships and vicissitudes, of many dark chapters in a journey you would never picture this soft, beautiful, classy and savvy businesswoman ever enduring.

Arlene has drawn and keeps drawing from her life experiences to guide her sharp business acumen. However, she says, it is the sum of all those experiences that have brought her to be who she is, and she has learned to take every single step (and the many missteps) as learning experiences, something she credits her father with instilling in her. Her dad, says Arlene, was one of the biggest influences in her life. He had a PhD in Education and “everything was a learning opportunity for him. My whole life has been all about lessons. I became the quiet observer and I became a really good listener and learned to distinguish the difference between what comes out of people’s mouths and what they’re really trying to say.”

As a young person all she ever wanted to do was to get married and have a family. She married at 19 and from the age of 20 to 27 she was pregnant six times, but sadly only four of her children survived. Life had something else in store for her and she has told the story in every detail in the two books that she has published: the number one bestselling book, Persuasion and her most recent best-selling release, All In.

She kept the audience enthralled for the duration of her presentation, a very funny, poignant, very entertaining and informative couple of hours, filled with great pointers, tips and suggestions on how to be better not just at the business aspect of being a Mompreneur, but also of being a mother and a woman. Watching Arlene, you wouldn’t picture a ruthless venture capitalist who has only gotten more savvy and better at what she does as the years go by, and yet she has managed to cement a place in the corporate world that thanks to her and to the way she carries herself looks a lot more welcoming and in tune with what a woman’s world looks and feels like, not the cold, heartless, bleak outlook that most businessmen make it out to appear.

She followed her presentation with some questions for the audience. More workshops and presentations continued for the rest of the day. The event continued at night with the Evening Awards Gala and Ceremony and the MC for that part of the program was Amanda Logan of 104.5 CHUM FM.  With such a stellar line-up of presenters Maria Locker joked that she didn’t know what she would do next year as it would be difficult to top the incredible array of different speakers, skills and life experiences the Mompreneur Conference included for this year. It is a challenge that I’m sure will only make this fantastic event that much better and certainly something to look forward to in 2015.