QUEENS CHAMBER MEMBER NEWS 2023 Women Entrepreneurs Empowerment Celebration

Shreya Uppal QCC Outreach Specialist

On March 1st, 2023, commemorating the beginning of an important month for the Queens Chamber of Commerce and women everywhere, we organized an Españolaoriented intimate gathering of business owners, entrepreneurs, and everyday workers to talk about overall financial management on businesses, home buying, and overall monetary growth.

Emphasizing the community, the event was geared towards Latina women in Queens since it is a demographic that is considered a minority when it comes to owning a business or partaking in investments that involve fiscal value. Consequently, the speakers and sponsors of the event were experts in both fields: Paola Garcia, the Vice President of Pursuit Lending, and Dahiana Genao, a Community Mortgage Loan Officer at TD Bank. Both speakers have been involved in the work of providing loans and assistance in investment endeavors such as businesses and/ or home-buying, both vital factors when it comes to the growth of an owner, especially for a group of people where it could be very new to explore.

The location of our event was held at the 35ave Diner in Astoria as they are a brand-new restaurant that has a team of Latinos with Oliveiro Rivera as the owner! We were truly grateful for them catering for our event and providing us a space where we can all gather and network with one another, not to forget the delicious food and drinks we got to enjoy!

We also received support in organizing and accessories from La Bonbonniere Marylu located in

Astoria with the help of the owner Elizabeth Flores, and Fidelis Care Community Relations Specialist, Patricia Mahecha, as well! Their team brought the theme of various colors of purple balloons and decorations, as it is significant in the commemoration of Women’s Month!

With the starting time at 3 pm and the Chamber registering over 40 people, our team created personalized bags of mugs, TD Bank giveaways, and our iconic pens, along with other fun goodies that everyone enjoyed! With a large number in attendance, the restaurant was houseful as the list of people ranged from women business owners with 32 years of experience to those who just started, both parties' goals were to learn and gain insight into the booming financial market as it keeps changing every day!

We wanted to make sure everyone was heard, therefore we started off by introducing our speakers and Chamber team which included, Jacqueline Donado, Vicky Ferreira, and myself, and continued around the room, as every woman introduced themselves, specifically their profession and what they wanted to gain from the seminar.

With this, we were able to know everyone more closely and communicate easily since most of them had similar issues/inquiries about their business. The information that was spoken about was vital as many questions were asked and people even continued to gather contact information for one another afterward! It is fair to say it was a successful women’s dinner and the idea of doing this again will truly be beneficial for the community and women entrepreneurs/business owners in the future!