Kim Aikman, CEO, BCCI
"We came up with the idea about three years ago because we recognized especially after COVID that there were so many women who were who had to become entrepreneurs and who were in business for them to survive and we wanted to find a forum to give them support to let us share from and learn from each other whatever are the best practices that one person is doing that maybe we could have used so we brought everybody together and since then it's been going it started out with probably like 30 women and now we're up to 150 and this is our third year."

"When we had COVID a lot of businesses shut down, not because they wanted to but because the country was shut down and as women we had to find a way to take care of our families and we saw the evolution of entrepreneurs of small businesses of ad hoc online businesses popping up all over the place."

"For example we had a lady in in Cayo who was making masks and we paid her bank transfers and then she sent them so it's and since then it's been difficult for some of the women to even go back into the formal workplace they have built upon their ideas and have gained the confidence to continue and put forward their businesses and try to improve it."

"All you have to be is a woman and in business we put out the invitation to members of the chamber female business owners of the chamber but we did not limit it to that we've had women who are not members who've called us and as can we participate and most definitely we said yes."