Local women celebrated at Network business awards

LOCAL businesswomen were honoured at the annual Network Ireland West Cork Businesswoman of the Year Awards 2020.

Mags Riordan of Bumblebee Flower Farm was named winner of the Solo Businesswoman Award while Marie Wiseman of Wiser Marketing won the award for Emerging Business, and Business Innovation Award went to Anne-Marie Kingston of White Sage Decluttering.

The theme of this year’s awards was the ‘Power Within’, as it was a celebration of the resilience, motivation, insights and know-how that women in business have, to fulfil their potential and lead and inspire others.

Each of this year’s finalists was entered into a very special award category ‘Power Within Champion’ designed to recognise these qualities and the winner was Barbara Noonan Sexton of Barbara Noonan Homeopathy.

Guest speaker for the evening, Margaret Nelson, chief executive of FM104 and Q102 celebrated all finalists and highlighted the importance of networking, saying: ‘Networks are communities of people and fundamentally it’s about people and connections when in business.’

Caroline Murphy, president of Network Ireland West Cork, said: ‘To celebrate this year’s awards virtually was both a new experience but also a lot of fun.

‘We are very proud of the Network Ireland West Cork Awards winners, Mags, Marie, Anne Marie and Barbara. These awards are a real opportunity to review their businesses and then showcase them to a wider audience.’  The winners from Network Ireland’s regional awards will compete for the coveted national awards, which will be hosted virtually from Powerscourt Hotel on Friday October 2nd.

Meanwhile, two more West Cork businesswomen are celebrating after they picked up Network Cork Businesswoman of the Year Awards at a virtual awards ceremony.

Madeleine Murray, co-founder of the Kinsale-based Change by Degrees was awarded the Emerging New Business award for the social enterprise’s ambition and focus on developing new ways of living sustainably, while Jenny Murphy, who lives in Clonakilty, won the ‘Business Innovation’ award and was commended for her creative and unique business model.

Linda O’Connell of the Society of St Vincent de Paul Ireland was awarded the Overall Businesswoman of the Year award.