Women Entrepreneurs INSPIRE Conference

OKlahoma EPSCoR is pleased to be a sponsor of the 2nd Annual Women Entrepreneurs INSPIRE Conference, which will be held Tuesday, April 5, at the Cox Convention Center in downtown Oklahoma City. 

Entrepreneurship is the key to revitalizing Oklahoma’s economy and women are leading the charge. Here and across the nation, women are starting for-profit and non-profit ventures, developing innovative new products and services, winning patents, and creating new markets. Today, an estimated 50% of small businesses are owned by women (12.4 million firms generating $2.5 trillion in sales, 2007) and for the past two decades women-owned firms have grown at twice the rate of all other firms. Yet women entrepreneurs still lag behind male owned firms in key areas.

Women Entrepreneurs INSPIRE 2011 is a day-long conference designed to inspire women to pursue their passions, think big and turn their dreams into reality. We explore unique obstacles, demands and challenges women face when creating and growing their own ventures. The day will feature keynote addresses by leading women entrepreneurs from across the nation and from Oklahoma. Hands on breakout sessions will examine a broad range of practical issues to enable women to act on their dreams. The breakouts will include two tracks: Start-up and Growth. The Start-up track will focus on creating your own venture, while the Growth track emphasizes ways to grow your venture once it is up and running. This year, WE INSPIRE 2011 will also feature sessions on technology entrepreneurship and social entrepreneurship — inspiration for creating profits using innovative ideas and lessons on “doing well and doing good”. WE INSPIRE is an incredible opportunity to be inspired, to network and to tap your entrepreneurial potential!

The registration fee to attend is $50 per person prior to the conference date and $75 on April 5.  For more event information or to register for the conference, visit the INSPIRE Web site at http://entrepreneurship.okstate.edu/inspire.