On the first night of Spring we celebrated women's entrepreneurship in Australia with the SBE 2022 Impact Event celebrating 10 years of SBE in Australia.
The SBE Community is bigger than any of us, and the energy of the 513-strong collective in that room was palpable and inspiring. Thank you to everyone who played a part in helping us deliver something truly special. Big thanks to the women who made SBE a reality in Australia, Wendy Simpson OAM, Topaz Conway, Kay Koplovitz, Amy Millman, and Clover Moore; to the many sponsors who supported the vision, Tattarang, Deloitte, City of Sydney, LaunchVic and our Gold, Award and table sponsors who enabled a small NFP to pull off this massive project. Thanks to Jane Lowe, Karen Tan, Paul Langley And the team at IR Department who made the amazing videos on the night and managed the media frenzy. Thanks to everyone who worked behind the scenes on the event to help us deliver something truly special Esmeralda Karlsone, Joel Turner, our University of Technology Sydney interns, Jordyn at Restaurant Associates, the AV and operations teams at City of Sydney, Cloudprint Group, Melinda Hird, Ubykate - The House Of U and others. We couldn't have done it without you.
To all the finalists and Award Winners of the inaugural 2022 SBE Impact Awards and all the founders within the SBE Alumnae and in the Australian community, you are all amazing. What a privilege to be surrounded by your brilliance, watch you grow, kick goals and transform industries and to get to know many of you. You are the reason we exist, the reason we all do what we do, and we salute you.
Now that we have laughed, connected, celebrated and the party is over, we have work to do. This event also saw two landmark reports launched from Deloitte and Techboard on the state of women's entrepreneurship in Australia and some dismal metrics on the proportion of available capital going to women-led businesses. Our exceptional MC Lucy Bloom described it as a horror movie and it is! Without capital, many transformative and innovative ideas never see the light of day and if they do they don't create the impact they could without adequate funding to scale. Take the time to contribute to the poll where a Capital Diversity Index will be set for true change. It's open until September 7th.
This collective has the capacity to really shift the dial on investment in women entrepreneurs and we are excited to see what transpires over the next ten years. It is certainly time for action.
Check out more photos here and the wrap video from the night here.