The Women's Business Center of the Virgin Islands is hosting its first mid-year conference Thursday through Saturday, April 13-15, on the theme of "Economic Empowerment for the 21st Century."
Targeted to participate in the conference, taking place at the Divi Carina Bay Resort on St. Croix, are women who are established and emerging business owners, as well as public officials, representatives of not-for-profit organizations, lenders, investors and financial consultants.
Guest presenters will include the following:
– Aida Alvarez, head of the U.S. Small Business Administration
– Delegate Donna Christian-Christensen, who is also a medical doctor
– Jeannine Coma, director of the Center for Management Development at the University of the West Indies Cave Hill campus in Barbados
– Linda Baxter, an attorney specializing in estate planning
– Patricia Rhymer-Todman, chair of the V.I. Commission on the Status of Women
– John Abramson Jr., V.I. supervisor of elections
– Dr. Prince Ramsey, a physician in Antigua concentrating on women's health and AIDS
– Dr. George Woodley, program operations manager for the Florida Department of Children and Families
– Catherine Hess, executive director of the Association of Maternal and Child Health Programs in Washington, D.C., and
– Barbara Collins, owner of Positive Trends, organizational development consulting firm.
The conference is a joint presentation of the WBC, the Small Business Administration, the St. Croix Foundation, the University of the Virgin Islands Small Business Development Center, the territory's Business and Professional Women chapters, the V.I. Health and Human Services Departments, the U.S. Public Health Service's Office of Women's Health and Virgin Islands Health Starts.
The Women's Business Center, founded last year with offices on St. Thomas and St. Croix, offers business training courses, networking, counseling, mentoring and free computer use with Internet access. The St. Croix Foundation manages a community business loan program making $650,000 available to female small-business owners.
According to information from the business center:
– Women own nearly 40 percent of businesses in the United States, and countries in which women are active as business owners have a higher level of economic growth than those in which they are not.
– Women's participation in the workforce in the Virgin Islands is declining.
– Sixty percent of women in the territory are high-school graduates.
– Ninety-nine percent of the welfare recipients in the territory are women.
"Women must confront welfare reform," a brochure describing the conference states. "Without the proper skills to make the transition from welfare to work, our community will find itself in deeper trouble."
The conference, it states, "will help women become full partners in the competitive marketplace" by examining "solutions to the many barriers women face in pursuing entrepreneurship."
Those wishing to attend the conference will be able to register at the door. Registration fees are $70 for one day, $140 for two days, $185 for three days, $275 for all three days plus a gala dinner on Saturday night, and $100 for the dinner only.
Plans call for the mid-year conference to be an annual event.
