21st January, 2020
A one-day event in Sydney celebrating all that is fierce and female in business? Yes, please!
Like Minded Bitches Drinking Wine (LMBDW) – a fast-growing community of over 120,000 women who have started or are starting their own businesses – is about to launch its inaugural conference, #BitchCon.
Don’t mind the language; the team at LMBDW have turned it into an empowering platform for women to share their experience and learning from a life in business.
And they’re now bringing it all together in a day of keynote speaker sessions and practical workshops, supported by their major partner (or ‘work wife’), MYOB.
Set to take place on 1 February, at Fishburners in Sydney, the newly created conference promises to become a must-see business event for the area.
If that’s not enough to get you excited for #BitchCon, then here’s a little more inspo for you.
Five years ago, Jane Lu and Gen George found themselves regularly being asked to share their experiences in startups, but struggled to find others in the same boat.
“We found it hard to find other women who were running businesses without all the BS and kumbaya,” said George, in a recent interview with The Pulse.
“So we started catching up for wine once a month and helping each other out.”
From there, the pair began inviting other women, and soon they had 30 people in an email chain.
“Facebook Groups had recently been released in Australia, so we thought let’s just all jump in here.
“But what could we call it?”
And so Like Minded Bitches Drinking Wine was born and the group has since gone from strength to strength – growing to 120,000-plus members spread across over 20 cities worldwide – all off the conviction of these two entrepreneurial ladies.
The fact they’re hosting their first global event is a real thrill, and we can’t wait to see them in action.
They’re serious about it – the team behind LMBDW are dedicated to weeding out the mindless positivity that often creeps into business events, and they’ve designed an action-packed agenda that proves it.
“All sessions are focused on how do I impact my business today,” said George,” rather than focusing on how exciting it is to start a business.
“For example: one of the sessions is to build out a financial forecast in an hour, how to scale your Facebook and Instagram ads, implementing operation procedures and templates from some of ANZ’s leading operators: Greer George from Sephora and Kovrd Pillows.”
While the information presented is designed to be as practical and targeted as possible, it also aims to be varied enough to cater for just about anyone starting or about to start their own business.
You’ll hear from the likes of the talented Jodie Fox, co-founder of Shoes of Prey, who can share insight into starting a global brand, international expansion and the challenges involved with creating bespoke ladies’ footwear.
These presentations are coupled with workshops from various tech providers and e-commerce businesses like Facebook and Showpo.
As George highlighted, this means each attendee will be able to curate their own, personalised learning experience.
“I think each person will have different takeaways from each speaker,” she said.
“As they’re super practical, no matter what, you will get something out of it.
“Some members are actually bringing their entire team to the event.”
The founders behind LMBDW maintain that, while the focus originally began with women entrepreneurs and will probably stay that way for a while, they’re happy for anyone and everyone to get involved.
“Yes, we’re an inclusive group so we’d encourage everyone to come along.”
So, why not join the LMBDW Facebook Group to get a sense of the type of content on offer, before coming down to #BitchCon itself?
While hanging out with likeminded bitches and drinking wine sounds like a fantastic platform for networking, the LMBDW team have also engineered away to make it worthwhile in a truly meaningful way.
“It’s important to note all profits from this event are going to LMBDW’S long time charity partner: The Hunger Project,” said George.
The Hunger Project is a charity that aims to end world hunger by 2030 by taking a difference approach: by seeing the people living with hunger as the solution.
By shifting the mindsets of the men and women to transform them into leaders on hunger issues through the support of programs in education, microfinance, agriculture and health.
Just as LMBDW is empowering women to succeed in business, The Hunger Project is empowering those living with hunger to overcome global food shortage.
It’s no joke: MYOB and LMBDW are taking #BitchCon very seriously, as it’s a sign of the two organisations support for helping businesses succeed.
“MYOB has been our one and only partner throughout the existence of the LMBDW community.
“For us, the importance of the group being able to unapologetically celebrate its own culture is so important and MYOB has supported and collaborated with us to achieve just that over the years.
“Cheekily, we call MYOB our ‘work wife’.”
Given the group’s global audience, #BitchCon appears to be set for a world tour and its organisers say that’s definitely on the cards.
“Our aim with everything we do with LMBDW is making it sustainable, so it can keep happening without Jane and myself having to do it in every city,” said George.
“How can we empower everyone to do this and impact their community?”
#BitchCon is just around the corner, so grab your friends and grab some tickets before it’s too late.