With smiles and shared enthusiasm, a community of women professionals, founders, leaders, and allies gathered on the morning of March 8th for our annual International Women’s Day.
Hundreds of attendees buzzed in our auditorium, chatting, connecting, and uniting under the goal of furthering equity. The content was on 
!
The day was filled with interactive, custom-designed workshops from our education partner Sandwina, which split off into “founders” and “leaders” tracks. Following the workshops, we hosted “Conversations with Leaders,” where Betsy Ziegler interviewed Suzanne Muchin, Co-founder of BonfireWomen and Clinical Professor at Kellogg School of Management, and Andrea Zopp, Managing Partner at Cleveland Avenue.
This year’s hybrid event was made possible by World Business Chicago and GET Cities, and we couldn’t thank you enough!
If you missed the event, or want to revisit content from the day, don’t worry – We took notes! Enjoy our recap of quotes, video content, and more below. Find our IWD 2023 youtube playlist here. Subscribe here.
Opening Remarks
In her opening address, 1871 CEO Betsy Ziegler kicked off the conversation by reminiscing on the last three years – from the early stages of the pandemic to where the tech community is today.
“This day matters,” said Ziegler. “Everything has changed over the last three years. How we work, interact, communicate. Status quo is redefined. IWD is a reminder that everyone can make a difference, work towards a gender equal world. No matter where you are in your path, you’ll benefit.”
Ziegler asked the crowd to not only applaud themselves for showing up to learn and grow as individuals, but to applaud ourselves as a community for how far we have come, from “surviving” to “thriving” as we continue in our own journeys.
The aim of the IWD 2023 #EmbraceEquity campaign theme is to get the world talking about why equal opportunities aren’t enough. People start from different places, so true inclusion and belonging require equitable action. Read more about this here.
Staggering statistics were shared regarding the inequality for VC funding ,investing, and other roadblocks faced by minorities in tech. Not only just women founders and leaders, but other underrepresentated groups, such as Black founders and leaders, Latin founders and leaders, etc.
Ziegler then tasked the crowd with several goals for the day: ‘Think of one to two things you can do to create an equal world, meet someone new, and most importantly, have fun’.
“It’s time for all of us to create and own a new vision of the future,” said Ziegler. “A future where people of all backgrounds have the opportunity to fund, found, lead, partner, and scale new innovations and visions.”
Founders Track Workshops
Bridget Lohrius, Founder & CEO of Sandwina, and Ellie Bahrmasel, Co-Founder & CEO of Further Faster, taught attendees how to get women founders funded, along with sharing insider tips on how to do so in ‘Closing the Investment Gap: Getting Women Funded Faster’.
Lohrius and Bahrmasel shared that one of the best practices women founders can do, is to create a ‘Whisper Network’. This is when individuals create a network of people who know their story, can speak highly of them and their work, and can spread their name in any room they walk into.
“Know your power, keep your faith in what you’re building, ask people to remind you what you’re building and build that whisper network,” said Lohrius. ”Make those connections and enjoy the benefits. Be confident, be bold, be proud – because you’re doing amazing things.”
Julie Bronsteatter, Mental Fitness Enthusiast & Sandwina Coach took the stage after Lohrius and Bahrmasel for ‘A Personal Branding Story – How a marketing professional scrapped her marketing knowledge to build and own a brand she loves’.
Bronsteatter shared her personal story about finding her own path in life, and shared several tips on what other women founders can do to take themselves and their business to the next level. Her overall tip to hesitant crowd members, “just f**king start.”
Leaders Track Workshops
Sandwina Coach Azalia Speight kicked off the Leaders Track workshops with ‘The Art & Science of Allyship: How Fear Feeds the Gap’.
Speight shared that several factors, such as current societal norms, conscious and unconscious bias, and resistance to vulnerability and equity, are reasons we as a society continue to “feed” inequality. Speight then shared how we as a community can acknowledge these barriers and stand up for ourselves and others when faced with inequity.
“You’ll be surprised that we all have platforms, we all have opportunities, and we all have power that will allow us to elevate others and be true allies,” said Speight.
Lohrius and Majmudar shared that the inequity of women in the workplace results in several factors, such as gender pay gap, underrepresentation in the workforce, unequal opportunities to move up in the work ladder, etc.
One major takeaway was for women professionals to raise their voice against inequality in the workplace, and to hold their organizations accountable.
Conversations with Leaders
1871 COO Lisa Laws kicked off the ‘Conversation with Leaders’ panel with a non-traditional, yet exhilaratingly entertaining ‘rap’ introduction of our guest speakers, with help from Chat GPT.
A huge thank you to Suzanne Muchin and Andrea Zopp for joining Betsy Ziegler on stage and sharing their professional insights and personal experiences.
Topics of discussion ranged from learning when to ask for help, building relationships, learning from life’s turning points, and comical personal stories woven throughout.
Zopp shared stories about her journey early on in her career and the challenges she faced, and conquered, along the way. Her best advice for women uncertain with their career? Trust yourself.
“Because of those relationships and the way my life went that I would never have thought about, it worked out totally fine,” said Zopp. “I could not have seen that, and I call out to you that things will happen that you feel are a derailment, and that’s okay. You will recover, and if not, recover better if that had not have happened to you. Trust.”
Muchin ended the conversation by sharing key values women professionals should keep in mind as they continue in their journey.
“We are not in a world where we deeply understand the value proposition that women bring to the workplace,” said Muchin. “ If you don’t fundamentally believe that you can be successful, no one else will. Only if you see within your own underlying value proposition, that you are making the world a better place, and you become more valuable.”
Thank you so much to everyone who joined us this year and celebrated women’s achievements with us! We hope you had a great time and continue to #EmbraceEquity all year long. We’ll see you next March for IWD 2024!
Join as an 1871 Early Stage Member.
Attend info sessionSubscribe to our ICYMI newsletter.
Share this post: