The spring 2010 event took place at the Oswego Hotel on February 26th, where we kicked off our shoes and danced to the beautiful voice of local singer Diane Pancel. A packed house with 90 lovely women. Something new happened this time around – we let the boys join us at 10:30pm They were VERY eager to come in! Thank you to Jenna Shouldice for photographing the event!

We celebrated the Girl’s Night Mixer’s 1 year anniversary at the Union Pacific on November 27th.! What a night! Thank you to our sponsors for the fabulous door prizes! We raised some good coin again for Bridges for Women! What a fabulous group of ladies you all are – much love!

Thank you to Jenna Shouldice for capturing the evening’s images!

It was awesome! On Friday July 31st, 60 amazing women gathered for a night of networking and mingling at the Union Pacific Coffee Company. The “Girl’s Night Mixer” has been in existence for less than 1 year, and the buzz is HOT! Our group is ever growing and we are now boasting a mailing list of well over 300 women. It is amazing to see the crazy talent this city has to offer. It is absolutely jaw-dropping to be in a room filled with women so diverse, so creative, so energized and so positive! So much beauty has come from this event!

One of the purposes of the evening (besides having a great time and meeting new people….) is to give back. We have been proud supporters of Bridges for Women and combined with the evening’s proceeds, we were able to raise over six hundred dollars! Thank you!

We had some great “gold” sponsors this time around: The amazing Nicole Sims (Coley Sims Design) designed the beautiful promos and posters, Terry Zlot (Loupe Imaging) was the printer extraordinaire, and the wonderful Alice Bracegirdle, CEO of Bellyfit, infused us with her fantastic energy!

I also had some make-over help for the evening! The ever talented Erin Froese did my make-up, the amazing Jennifer Davies (The Hair Garden) did my 40’s inspired up-do, and the man that makes all women jealous of his wardrobe…. Franklin Porter accessorized me with vintage bling!

I was SO thrilled to have Jenna Shouldice photograph the evening for us yet again! She is awesome!

Only 23 days until our summer Mixer, and how exciting! Things are coming together and the buzz is on! More and more fascinating people are joining the mailing list almost daily and I am so thrilled to see that our fundraising mission is being embraced! Can you tell how excited I am by the amount of exclamation marks in this post! Woohoo! Well, without further ado, here is the new, revamped poster for the Girl’s Night Mixer. A big applause goes to the wonderful Nicole Sims who so generously joined in as a sponsor and BIG helper extraordinaire! Check out her other amazing design work at: www.coleysims.ca

In November of last year I decided to throw a networking party at my place to get all my amazing lady friends, most of which are business owners themselves, to meet, chat and have a good time all while making new connections. Being an avid networker, I meet a lot of fantastic people on a regular basis. One thing that had occurred to me, is that traditional or more formal networking groups seemed to attract the same industries or professions. My theory being that networking groups can feel intimidating or alienating to some, especially if you don’t have a “mainstream” profession or business. My main goal for the evening was to create a setting which I thought could open the door to people who wouldn’t normally think of networking. The idea was to create a very informal setting (*more of a party really*) where people could come and discuss business or not – no pressure. Oh – and I decided to make it for women only – sorry guys! So, I kicked my family out for the night and made room in my very small space to accommodate 30 of us! The place was buzzing until the wee hours of the morning, and we were all vibrating from the beautiful energy in the room for weeks after! The word spread very quickly, and the very next day, I started receiving emails asking me when the next one was going to happen! Huh – I hadn’t even thought of having a next one!

A few months passed and I decided to launch another evening of the sort. The demand was so high, that space became an issue and I had to find a venue! I grew the event and got a few sponsors on board to help with cost and marketing. Nicole Sims created a beautiful poster and promotional pieces, and Terry Zlot was the printer extraordinaire! We held the second evening, again for women only at the Cornerstone Café in Fernwood, on the last Friday of March 2009. It was an RSVP evening and we capped it at 55 people. The lovely Rosie Bitts was the surprise performance for the night. Jenna Tye captured the evening perfectly with her amazing photography. Again, everyone had a great time – the only complaint being that it was just too short! The costs of the evening had escalated suddenly, and we could really only afford the venue for a few hours. This was definitely something I had to fix the next time around. Read more about the March event in the May 2009 Village Vibe article.

Well, it’s now time for the next one! The first round of invitations has been sent, but there is still room. The next evening will be held on Friday July 31st, 2009, at the Union Pacific Coffee House on Herald Street. Our host Jim is excited to welcome a room full of fantastic ladies! We have grown again! Our email list has grown exponentially to well over 200 interested people. We will cap the event at 60 people, and so it will definitely be a question of reserving your spot quickly! I am excited to announce that we have a few new sponsors on board which will make this event even greater, as well as help with the collecting of funds for the Bridges for Women Society. The evening will commence at 7pm, and our venue will close its doors just passed midnight! Yeah!

Here are some of the photos Jenna took of the evening. All images © Jenna Shouldice Photography.