By Vivian Onyebukwa
It was all fun, glam as women from all walks of life gathered for this year’s Women Connect Hangout 4.0 hosted by Women Connect Nigeria.
The event which was held at La Mango Restaurant and Lounge Ikeja GRA, Lagos, was also to mark this year’s International Women’s Day.
The Women Connect 2024 with the theme: “Inspire Inclusion”, provided an opportunity for the participants to connect with inspiring women, expand network, and receive the support needed to achieve business goals, and empower female entrepreneurs.
Speaking, the Founder of Women Connect, Oyinlola Sale, said it was all about women connect. Sale said she was driven by the fact that there is a special day dedicated for women, which calls for celebration. “We were online but today, we decided to expand. This is a platform where women can promote their businesses. Some have offered free health services”.
Sale urged women to break into other sectors of life, take their rightful position in life.
Going down memory lane, Sale, who is also a journalist and Television presenter, recalled that the idea came during the COVID-19 in 2020. “I looked at the platform and urged the women to help themselves by networking online and we grew into having physical events. We have at least one or two physical events in a year. We have women around the world. Some are in Nigeria, some live in other African countries, while others stay in the UK, Canada, among others. I was actually inspired to start the platform a long time ago. When I was working with TVC, I was presenting a programme called ‘A Woman’s World’ and that was as far back as 2013 and I really loved it. Along the line, I stopped and then moved to another TV station. Later on, I had a programme called ‘Amazing Amazon’ where I interviewed over 100 different women from different sectors. I finally realised in 2020 that I needed to create a network, a community for these women. That was how we created “Women Connect”, and it has been a platform where women have connected. They have been able to empower one another”.
In addition to networking opportunities, there were health, sex, and beauty master classes at the event.
Other activities included free business workshop, free massage, brand exposure, retirement tips by an expert Ijeoma Chinaka, and lots of gifts to the numerous guests.
Above all, Emmanuel Adedeji, Development Behaviour Consultant, gave out 15 points that makes a high value woman titled, “High value Woman”
One notable attraction was, “Sip and Paint” session where the women tried their hands on painting.