KE WE Exclusive Meet to Unfold and Envision 2024

~ Luvena Rangel (The Curvy Yogi)

Kanara Entrepreneurs (KE) had an Exclusive Meet for their women members followed by an evening of structured networking with the KE Lead Members, who were attending a meeting simultaneously, on Friday January 19th, 2024 at The Grand Magrath, Bangalore. The event was planned with precision timing as well as focus to meet the needs of the woman business owner.

After Carol Shelley D’Souza (The Mangalorean & Sanaas Restaurants) led the members in prayer, the evening was heralded with a warm welcome from Ivan Fernandes, KE Global Chairman. Ivan shared his inspiring journey as an entrepreneur and forged a sense of kinship with the attending members – an important interaction to decrease the gap between members and the global leadership as well.

KE Women Entrepreneurs (KE WE) is focused on supporting the unique needs of women-led businesses with tools specific to business acumen and industry needs. Under Luvena Rangel’s leadership, the vision for KE WE is to educate and enable members with a holistic range of tools to succeed. By building personal connections with every member, she has her finger on the pulse of what members are looking for to evolve as businesspersons and aims to deliver that in the months ahead.

The icebreaker activity, facilitated by Luvena, was a co-creative exercise that nudged members to think on the spot and share their Word for 2024 and how they envisioned it unfolding in their lives. The sentiments shared ranged from core business and financial values to the more personal affirmations intended to spill over into business and management style and spread overall fulfilment in the entrepreneurial experience. The words have since been artistically put together into a word cloud – a culmination of KE WE’s aspirations for the year ahead.

Tapping into in-house expertise, KE WE zeroed in on Finance for Business as the theme of the evening, delivered is crisp brilliance by Jasmine Pinto (Finzcurve). The presentation covered Business Set-Up Types, Documentation, Compliance, Planning and much more. The case studies explored were relevant to member experiences and found the right blend of experience, learning and empathy. The interactive session was very well received and members questions that were promptly and expertly answered indicated a valuable spend of time and effort as well as a safe space to be vulnerable about clarifying business concepts and indices.

The cornerstone of such events is to maximize the potential of networking that KE offers by bridging the gap between KE Lead Members and the women members, thereby increasing the opportunities for showcasing business profiles, build relationships and find safety in asking. The Lead Members drew lots to pair with the KE Woman Entrepreneur they were to interact with exclusively for 10 minutes post the official meetings. The women were mentored to utilize the Elevator Pitch (from a past session) to introduce themselves and their business. They were also coached to confidently make a business ask to explore how the Lead Member may contribute towards. Following up after the meeting was left to the members. From the intense and animated discussions across the hall, the energy of a sense of purpose, excitement and opportunity was definitely palpable with positive feedback from all participants.

The women members of KE are a dynamic and powerful group of with a strong bond of friendship, accountability, support and kinship. Warmth, laughter and clarity with a genuine desire to give makes us a force to reckon with our eye firmly on the summit. Many thanks to the KE WE Core Team (Leena Lobo, Rachana Rego, Reshma Saldanha & Sabitha Lasrado) and KE Executive Committee (Carol Dsouza, Charmaine Saldanha, Reena Serrao & Uma M.) for their time, effort and creative input. Bigger thanks to the enthusiasm of the attending members of KE WE to support the effort and trust the process and vision.

The unflinching support and encouragement from Claudius Pereira, KE President, and Board of Directors, especially James Coelho for mentoring KE WE. They have been instrumental in the KE WE success story just as they have been sounding boards while we gracefully navigate stumbles. Here’s looking forward to another successful year!

Claudius Pereira Clarence Pereira Clarence D’ Souza Anoop Sequeira James Coelho Sunil D’sa Naveen R D’Souza Adrian D’Souza Vilina Sequeira Roshan Sequeira Ivan Fernandes Luvena Rangel (She/Her) Mark D Souza Anand James Dsilva Santhosh Sequiera Nigel Fernandes Dr Maria Pramila (Finance Wellness Specialist) Laveena Dsouza KE Admin Rohit Fernandes CA. Jasmine Pinto Sabitha Lasrado

#womenentrepreneurs #networking #kanaraentrepreneurs #kebangalore