Press release from Meath County Chamber
29.04.22
Meath Women in Biz & Tech meet virtually
On Friday the 29th of April, the Meath Women in Biz & Tech network met virtually for the first time in 2022. The Network is a joint initiative between County Meath Chamber and the Meath Local Enterprise Office and aims to connect and support women in business in the county. The network is proudly sponsored by META. Open to all females in business, the zoom call attracted over 30 participants and was facilitated by Elaine Keogh from Solstice Media.
The theme for the event was ‘Digital innovation and the power of marketing’. Speaking at the event was Kate Scott, CEO and founder of Holo Toyz and Helena Hemeryck, CEO and founder of Chez Emily chocolates. Sinead Smith, General Manager at Meath’s Women Refuge & Support Services also joined the call for Go Purple Day- to help raise awareness for domestic abuse services in the county.
Elaine opened the call by introducing Kate Scott, founder, and CEO of Holo Toyz. The company was started by Kate and her husband Declan in 2020 and has digital innovation at its heart. Their target market is the world of children. The business aims to provide a safe place for children to interact with technology. Their product range includes temporary tattoos, stickers, books, and wall decals. All of the products then come to life when viewed through their app- with characters and animals appearing.
“When we were starting out, we received great help and advice from Meath Local Enterprise Office. They helped us along our journey to receiving seed investment.” Kate also explained their business to customer sales strategy as well as the business-to-business strategy which included social media advertising, influencers, trade shows and more. All their hard work has culminated in a deal with Nickelodeon and another collaboration with Sega. A truly inspirational story.
Elaine then invited Sinead Smith to say a few words about Go Purple Day. Meath women’s refuge and support services has been in operation for 34 years and has seen an escalation in demand over the past two years. “1 in 4 women is affected by domestic violence in Ireland. Two thirds of us know someone who has been affected. Go purple day is about raising awareness of the supports that are out there for women in our community and about removing the stigma surrounding domestic and gender-based violence.” Sinead spoke about a new bill going through the Dail in the summer that will allow women to take leave when affected by violence at home. She urged participants to start the conversation in their workplaces.
The second guest speaker of the morning was Helena Hemeryck, CEO, and founder of Chez Emily chocolates in Ashbourne. Emily explained how marketing was very different when she and her husband started the business 26 years ago. “To get our business and product out there we attended farmers markets, shows, and events all around the region. It was a slow way of doing it, but word of mouth was our most powerful marketing tool at the time. Digital innovation was the best thing that could have happened for our company and having a presence online allowed us to reach the entire world”.
Helena explained how they were able to build a loyalty system among their customers and in time create a destination shop where customers could come and taste the chocolates themselves. The Local Enterprise Office Trading Online Voucher initiative was instrumental in providing a portal for customers to purchase online. Participants on the call praised Helena for her honesty and work ethic.
During the call, participants were given the opportunity to attend 2 break out rooms for smaller networking. Participants were able to give advice on what organisations they were part of and what has changed the most in their field of work in regards digital innovation.
To end the call, Elaine announced the winner of the spot prize of 1 night’s Dinner, B&B at the beautiful Bellinter House in Meath. Denise O’Brien, General Manager of the hotel was on the call to let participants know of the amazing facilities available to the public at the hotel including afternoon tea, lunches, their new hot tub as part of the Spa and more.
The next Women in Business and Technology meeting will be an in-person event on the 17th of June. The event is open to all women in business in County Meath and pre-registration is necessary. For more information on this and all County Meath Chamber news visit www.meathcountychamber.ie