Calendar

Monthly GOLD networking on 31st October 2019, 9.30am

Join other women who work or run a business in West Lothian, or are thinking about setting up in business. We meet for mutual support, catching up with regular connections and making new ones to help with our professional and personal development.

Our banner will be up in the conservatory area in Dobbies, Livingston.  So grab a coffee, and join a table for networking, support and conversation with other local women in business. Our theme is just be yourself.

Our monthly meet-up at Dobbies Livingston is free to attend, and is friendly, informal guided networking. It’s also ideal if you are new to networking and want to dip your toe in the water. No formal pitches to the full room, but you get a chance to introduce yourself and your work to a small table, and the opportunity to move around to different tables to meet a range of different people.

G  –  Get to know each other

O  –  Open Communication Lines

L  –  Learn Something New

D  –  Develop Lasting Relationships

So, newbies, regulars, and old friends we haven’t seen in a while, come along and try out our networking ‘STYLE’  and let us know what you think, how it can serve you and your business and how we can make it even better.

Many Thanks,
WLWIB Steering Group

PLEASE NOTE – this is a FREE event and registration from 9:30 to enable prompt start 9:45. The link for registering will be posted nearer the time.

Monthly GOLD networking on 27th February, 9.30am

Many of us work for ourselves or run small businesses, or work for larger companies but from a home office, so the chance to meet up with other women – for conversation, sharing ideas and recommendations, making connections, getting a sanity check, getting out of the office – is essential, and West Lothian Women in Business monthly event is a friendly, welcoming forum.

There is no formal pitch to the whole room, but our friendly guided networking means you get a chance to introduce yourself and your work to a small table of other women, and have the opportunity to move around to different tables to meet a range of people. We are all women who work or run a business in West Lothian, or are thinking of setting up in business; you’re warmly invited to join us.

Our banner will be up in the conservatory area. Bring some business cards, grab a coffee and join a table.

This is a FREE event. Please check in at the tables from 9.30am to enable prompt start 9:45am

G  –  Get to know each other

O  –  Open Communication Lines

L  –  Learn Something New

D  –  Develop Lasting Relationships

PLEASE NOTE – this is a FREE event and registration from 9:30 to enable prompt start 9:45. 

West Lothian Women in Business hold an annual event in March to celebrate International Women’s Day.

Following the same popular format as the past couple of years, we have once again invited a panel of three women to share their experiences with us, for our annual West Lothian Women in Business celebration of International Women’s Day in March.

The International Women’s Day theme this year is #equalforequal; “We can actively choose to challenge stereotypes, fight bias, broaden perceptions, improve situations and celebrate women’s achievements.” This applies to gender equality issues in the context of International Women’s Day, but it also applies to any context of our business or personal lives, and each of our speakers has tackled at least one of these issues during their career paths to date.

Our three speakers – their bio info is below – have very diverse experiences and will share their stories with us. There will be the chance to ask questions and engage in discussion on the issues raised.

After the discussion we will have some guided networking, and the chance to catch up with other members and meet new faces.

So please join us on 26th March from 9.30am for complimentary tea/coffee and a 10am start.

We’re at our usual IWD venue, Oracle in Linlithgow – thanks again to Oracle for hosting us.

Here are details of our panel members:

Jacine Rutasikwa

Managing Director and Co-Founder of Matugga Distillers

Jacine is Managing Director and co-founder of Matugga Distillers, which launched the first rum distillery in Central Scotland in 2018.

Together with her husband Paul (Master Distiller), Jacine leads an artisanal distillery that produces high-quality award-winning rums, which are distributed across the UK and Europe. The company’s highly regarded unaged (white) and cask-aged golden and spiced rums are carefully crafted from scratch at the family-owned distillery in Livingston using high-quality sugarcane molasses and 100% copper pot distillation.

A member of the Scottish Distillers Association, Matugga Distillers’ vision is to bring diversity, authenticity and sustainability to UK made rum. The company strives to bring ground-breaking innovation to its spirit making, cultivate a new generation of rum enthusiasts, and make a positive impact in communities where it operates.

Jacine is a Chartered Professional Marketer and has over 18 years’ experience in media, marketing and business development. She has enjoyed a career as a corporate marketer with major global companies and consulting firms — across financial services, mining, technology and manufacturing, in the U.K and the U.S.

Jacine obtained a bachelor’s degree from the University of Birmingham and a masters degree in Integrated Marketing Communications from Northwestern University.

She has served on the board of the Chicago American Marketing Association, as Vice President of Communications. Jacine also served on the Board of the Black Cultural Archives as part of the dedicated team that led a publicly funded £7-million capital project to transform an historic building in London into a state-of-the-art national heritage centre

Caroline Bennett

Owner and Lead Physiotherapist, PhysioFlex

Caroline Bennett is the founder and lead physiotherapist at PhysioFlex, a practice offering physiotherapy, sports injuries and massage therapy.

She launched PhysioFlex 13 years ago, and now manages a team of seven physios across three sites in West Lothian. Moving reluctantly from full time NHS work to part time NHS and part-time in her own practice, she had not initially set out intending to run a business full time. A combination of circumstances led to her employing another physiotherapist to help with her workload, and she embraced the opportunity to turn her passion for helping people into a sustainable business.

Juggling the demands of part time work, and her own practice, three children, two dogs and almost impossibly high standards for herself, she has in the past experienced burn-out, but returned from it stronger and more in control of getting her business and personal life to where she wants it to be. Her passion is helping people feel better, and she is now using her 20 years experience in physiotherapy, and her ever-increasing business experience, to do just that.

A former marathon runner, Caroline understands how important your body is and has built her team based on a high level of people skills and professional knowledge. All PhysioFlex physiotherapists are degree-level trained and experienced, and the practice is Accredited by Health & Care Professions Council, Chartered Society of Physiotherapy and other professional bodies.

Orlaith Brogan

Founder at Orlaith.B Coaching and The Mumpreneur Revolution

Two years ago, Orlaith decided that it was time to make a change, not only for herself, but also for other like-minded mums across the UK facing the same dilemmas as her.

Orlaith passionately believes that women can be amazing parents and successful businesswomen and shouldn’t ever have to compromise on either.  When Orlaith’s son was two weeks old, she created a community that encouraged women to look at sales and competition differently and to build a community that genuinely supported others.

Within a year of launching, she was personally acknowledged by Facebook and invited to join an exclusive community-building group they host. Orlaith and her son attended ‘Facebook gather’ where they met Sheryl Sandberg – chief operating officer of Facebook and founder of LeanIn.Org.

Building on her extensive career experience, Orlaith is one of the few business coaches who is both a qualified coach and has a career history in business development. Through combining her two greatest passions (personal development and business growth) she has quickly become a well-known and respected business figure across Edinburgh and beyond.

A firm believer that stories of motherhood can teach us valuable business lessons, she’s no stranger to the myriad of challenging situations that parenting ensues and has chosen to capitalise on these, bringing them to the forefront of her work and using them to help women gain deeper understandings around themselves and their businesses.

Running her business as single mum, Orlaith wants to show people what is really possible when you stop making excuses. She is determined to support other mothers who have decided that they are fed up playing small and want to follow their passions and run their own business.

So, please join us for our International Women’s Day event on Thursday 26th March, again kindly hosted by Oracle in Linlithgow – EARLY BIRD tickets just £6 until Friday 28th February, with full priced tickets at £7.50 thereafter.

PLEASE NOTE – registration and networking from 9:30 – with tea, coffee and biscuits -with start at 10:00am – there will be a short break in the middle, and networking at the end.

Many thanks,

   WLWIB Steering Group

West Lothian Women in Business is a non-profit group run by a small number of volunteers. The group is here to help empower and support women who, are either running their own business or considering it, are professional women in the business world or other organisations and who would like to connect with other like-minded women and grow as individuals.