Join us for a week of conversations, mentorship, and workshops with Canadian female entrepreneurs and founders.
Event link: https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/female-foundry-presents-forging-new-frontiers-tickets-141123846223
About this Event
Dentsu Canada’s recent study of women in business found that women are fundamentally treated differently when attaining funding for their business.
In the wake of COVID-19, this problem has only worsened. To combat this trajectory, we’re launching Female Foundry and you’re invited to the inaugural conference! This series of workshops and discussions focusing on empowering Canadian female entrepreneurs with the tools and resources needed to launch and grow their businesses. Here’s just a snippet of the key topics we’ll be covering:
1. The Capital Challenge: Exploring the unique challenges faced by women founders when raising and securing venture capital and the right funders.
2. The Leadership Challenge: Shining a light on the transferable and new skills that female founders need to adapt as they go from creating value as a start-up to managing a growing company with employees, customer bases and stakeholders.
3. The Management Challenge: Expanding on the evolving management and operational systems women founders need to put into place to sustain profitable and scalable growth.
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Conference Schedule
Monday, March 8: Women in a Post-Covid World
To kick things off, we’ll be covering the business challenges disproportionately affecting women from all walks of life and backgrounds before and during the pandemic and what we can all do to uplift each other now and into the future.
12:00pm | Opening & Welcome
12:15pm ET | Keynote: Women in a Post-Covid World with Michelle Scarborough (Managing Partner, BDC Capital’s Women in Technology Venture Fund)
12:30pm — 1:30pm ET | Panel Discussion featuring: Alex Panousis (CEO, Carat Canada) Alana Kayfetz (Founder & CEO, MomsTO), Lily Tse (Founder & CEO, Think Dirty), Kishawna Peck (Founder, Womxn in Data Science), and Aashni Shah (Founder & CEO, Hype Docs) Moderated by: Sarah Armstrong (SVP, Client Solutions Dentsu Canada)
1:30pm -2:00pm ET| Keynote: Women in a Covid World with Dawn Desjardins (Vice President, Deputy Chief Economist, RBC Economics)
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Tuesday, March 9: The Future of Work
Today, we ask: how do we plan for a challenging and changing workplace? Join us as women technologists, investors and advisors will be sharing their experiences and knowledge to help attendees find and raise the right capital for their firm and their future.
12: 15pm ET | Keynote: The Future of Work with Takara Small (CBC Technology Journalist, Founder of VentureKids)
12:30pm — 1:00pm ET| Panel Discussion featuring:
- Melissa Sariffodeen (Co-Founder & CEO, Canada Learning Code)
- Melissa Kartick (Co-Chair, Canada’s Next Top Ad Exec)
- Jeffrey Yateman (Co-Chair, Canada’s Next Top Ad Exec)
- Jeff Greenspoon (CEO, dentsu Canada)
Moderated by: Helen Kontozopoulos (Chief Evangelist & Co-Founder ODAIA Intelligence)
1:00pm — 2:00pm ET | Open Panel: The Challenges of Funding Women-Led Technology Companies
Session Focus: Women founders face many of the same challenges their male counterparts face when raising venture capital: demonstrating the strength of the tech, market, team, strategy and so on.However, women face additional challenges when facing venture capital. For example, women are underrepresented in VC firms, women-led technology companies raise significantly less then their male-counterparts. This session will address these challenges head-on, and highlight the experience and knowledge of women technologists, investors and advisors, to help attendees find and raise the right capital for their firm and their future.
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Wednesday, March 10: Scaling For Growth
Going from Founder to CEO has its pros and cons — so let’s talk about them! In this session, we engage with female founders who either currently lead a company or have attained an exit and talk about what leadership looks like at each stage of your company’s growth.
12:00pm — 12:30pm ET | Fireside Chat: Scaling for Growth with Michelle McBane (Managing Director, StandUp Ventures)
12:30pm — 2:00pm ET | EXCLUSIVE Workshop: Leading A Scaling Company
Session Focus: A founder-led session, with female founders who either currently lead a company or have attained an exit. We believe this session should be focused on leadership.
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Thursday, March 11: The Power of Your Network
Great ideas are often rallied behind, yet for women entrepreneurs, this can be particularly challenging. In this session, we look at how win-win partnerships and sustainable networks can help build your business and be equally powerful.
12:00–12:30pm ET | Fireside Chat: The Power of Your Network with Anar Simpson (Board Member, CARE Canada)
12:30pm — 2:00pm ET | EXCLUSIVE Workshop: Building A Company You Don’t Want To Sell
Session Focus: Venture-funded companies tend to reorient themselves to a liquidation event, which is usually an acquisition. We think that orientation is limiting and causes some founders to focus on the wrong metrics (like users and growth) without building the company itself.
EXCLUSIVE CLOSED WORKSHOP *Part of Female Founder Mentorship Program: Building a Company You Don’t Want to Sell. Session Focus: Venture-funded companies tend to reorient themselves to a liquidation event, which is usually an acquisition. We think that orientation is limiting and causes some founders to focus on the wrong metrics (like users and growth) without building the company itself.
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Friday, March 12: The Week In Review
In this session, we take a reflective look back on the conversations from the past week and explore the road ahead together.
12:15pm — 1:15pm ET | Keynote: The Week In Review Panel Discussion featuring
- Simren Deogun (VP Solutions, Dentsu Canada)
- Marissa Bronfman (Founder & CEO, Shot of Turmeric Gold and We Are Womxn)
- Takara Small (CBC Technology Journalist, Founder of VentureKids)
- Lily Tse (Founder & CEO, Think Dirty)
- and Kishawna Peck (Founder, Womxn in Data Science)
- Moderated by: Helen Kontozopoulos (Chief Evangelist & Co-Founder ODAIA Intelligence)
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Meet The Hosts
Kate Dobrucki, VP Communications Dentsu Canada
A lifelong storyteller, brands can count on Kate to get to the point and spread the word. Kate is an industry-leading VP, with 15+ years of strategic PR experience across experiential, social and digital. Kate balances her tenacity with distinctly collaborative approach to execute award-winning programs for beloved brands. As a champion for female empowerment, Kate is also the founder of Womxn Who, a dentsu initiative dedicated to the empowerment and elevation of female leaders. Her prowess as a marathon runner is mirrored in her positive working relationships.
Sarah Armstrong, SVP Client Solutions Dentsu Canada
A collaborative, optimist who embraces change, Sarah has spent her career leading multi-agency teams for some of Canada’s largest blue-chip accounts. Sarah has built a solid reputation for providing strategic and integrated marketing solutions while also driving innovation and collaborative with clients to drive business growth. Her experience in strategic planning through to activation nails client KPIs time over time. An active mentor in the industry, Sarah has served as a judge for the Ad Club of Toronto’s OOH competition, the Canadian Young Lions Media competition as well as Canada’s Next Top Ad Executive. She is also on the Steering Committee of Womxn Who, a dentsu initiative dedicated to the empowerment and elevation of female leaders.
Helen Kontozopoulos, Chief Evangelist & Co-founder at ODAIA.ai
Helen co-founded ODAIA.ai, an AI-powered customer segmentation, commercial automation and predictive analytics SaaS platform for Pharma and eCommerce in 2018 out of the University of Toronto. As Chief Evangelist, she brings her understanding of AI, customer analytics, and digital transformation, to help sales and marketing teams adopt artificial intelligence in their work.
She has been teaching product development, design, and entrepreneurship for 8 years at the University of Toronto at the Department of Computer Science (St. George Campus), and the Department of Computer and Mathematical Sciences (UTSC).
Helen co-founded UofT’s Department of Computer Science Innovation Lab (DCSIL), an incubator that supports students and faculty to commercialize their innovations in emerging technologies.
In her spare time, she teaches women about AI, data and digital skills, and is leading program development for Forging New Frontiers.
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Speakers list:
Michelle Scarborough, Partner, BDC Capital’s Women In Technology Venture Fund
Takara Small, Journalist
Melissa Sariffodeen, CEO and Co-founder, Canada Learning Code
Simren Deogun, VP, Solutions, Dentsu Canada
Anar Simpson, Board Member: CARE Canada, Technovation Girls
Michelle McBain, Managing Director, Standup Ventures
Lily Tse, CEO and Founder, Think Dirty
Alex Panousis, CEO, Carat
Helen Kontozopoulos, Co-founder, ODAIA.ai
Jeff Greenspoon, CEO, Dentsu Canada
Melissa Kartick, Co-Chair Canada’s Next Top Ad Exec
Jeffrey Yateman, Co-Chair Canada’s Next Top Ad Exec
Lily Tse (Founder & CEO, Think Dirty)
Kishawna Peck (Founder, Womxn in Data Science)
Marissa Bronfman (Founder & CEO, Shot of Turmeric Gold and We Are Womxn),
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Interested in joining the Female Foundry mentorship program?
The Female Foundry is a global initiative developed by iProspect and powered by dentsu to drive diversity and inclusion in business. It provides access to tools, training, connections, and resources, empowering female entrepreneurs to build successful businesses for the digital age.
Reach out to Kate Dobrucki (kate.dobrucki@dentsu.com) for more information on how you can apply. Spaces are limited, mentors are motivated — don’t miss out!
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