October 12, 2023

Women Entrepreneurship Week Celebrates 10th Anniversary

The Feliciano Center for Entrepreneurship + Innovation’s WEW to host dynamic entrepreneurial experts, recognizing and celebrating female founders

Posted in: Business, University

A panel of five women on stage. — The Women Entrepreneurship Week celebrates 10 years this month. (Photo of a panel discussion in 2022 by John J. LaRosa.)

Update: 10/26/2023: Montclair State University’s Women Entrepreneurship Week event was livestreamed and can now be viewed online.

Posted 10/12/2023: Women Entrepreneurship Week, which began at Montclair State University and grew into a global event, will celebrate 10 years on October 18, 2023.

Created and hosted by the Feliciano Center for Entrepreneurship + Innovation, this year’s event will feature a new networking luncheon followed by speakers and a panel discussion of entrepreneurial women at the University Hall Conference Center.

“We are thrilled to welcome a superstar lineup, featuring innovators, experts and policy makers having honest conversations that will leave attendees feeling inspired and motivated for the journey ahead – whatever that may be,” says Liz Rich, acting executive director of the Feliciano Center for Entrepreneurship + Innovation.

A collage of photos of women speakers. — Some of the speakers at the 10th Annual Women’s Entrepreneurship Week event include (clockwise from top left) Farnoosh Torabi, Paula Machado Jackler, Cyndie Spiegel, Cynthia Pong, Sara Peña, Adriana Carrig and Maya Brooks.

The event runs from 1 to 3 p.m. with the new luncheon preceding. The WEW 2023 speakers and panelists lineup looks like this:

11:30 a.m. – Networking luncheon and book signing by Farnoosh Torabi, a leading personal finance expert and author of many books, including her most recent, A Healthy State of Panic: Follow Your Fears to Build Wealth, Crush Your Career, and Win at Life.

1 p.m. Program begins

1:15 p.m. – Cyndie Spiegel, best-selling author of two books including her latest, Microjoys: Finding Hope (Especially) When Life is Not Okay, will deliver a keynote.

1:30 p.m. – Fireside chat: Kindness guru, and founder and CEO of the Little Words Project Adriana Carrig will be in conversation with Amy Ogbonna, board member of Herself Co. (formerly The Block Organization), a nonprofit also dedicated to kindness among young women.

2 p.m. – Panel: Turning Funding Fear into Fuel. This panel will feature personal finance expert Farnoosh Torabi; Maya Brooks, founder and CEO of Privy Labs; Sara Peña, PSEG director of external affairs; and Paula Machado Jackler, founder of Ozzie, an AI-powered financial planner and coach that uses psychology to help people get their money and life together.

2:30 p.m. – Author, career coach, speaker and self-described “hype woman for women of color” Cynthia Pong will deliver the closing keynote.

The event will end with an awards ceremony, a giveaway and more networking. “We hope you can join us as we celebrate the 10th Anniversary of Women Entrepreneurship Week at Montclair State University,” Rich says.