The Importance of Friends

The Friends of SWIB sponsorship level is extremely important to the SWIB organization. Friends of SWIB sponsors represent a fundamental piece of the Stern Women in Business annual conference, as well as the potential for partnerships throughout the year. The SWIB board tries to host partner events throughout the year as often as possible in order to promote a Friend of SWIB's business and to provide networking opportunities. The conference, however, is where Friends of SWIB are of vital importance to us. While we enjoy the financial support of our large corporate sponsors, we also enjoy product donations or deals for conference attendees from our Friends of SWIB.

If we are lucky, sponsorships will carry over to the next year and long-term partnerships can be built. It is important for SWIB to make sure that its Friends of SWIB sponsors are receiving a reciprocal benefit to the sponsorship relationship, primarily through promotion at the conference and then hopefully additional events during the year. According to Marlo Scott, owner of Sweet Revenge and two-time Friend of SWIB Sponsor, "sponsorship can be a low cost and therefore effective way to get my brand/product in front of a highly targeted audience. It has the added benefit of fostering relationships that will last beyond the event, which may lead to additional opportunities. You never know who you're going to meet and what door may open as a result".

In order to recruit new Friends of SWIB, the SWIB Conference Committee brainstorms either businesses that were founded by women or businesses with women-focused products or services. The list of hopeful Friends of SWIB mainly consists of businesses that the SWIB Conference Committee members already know and love. Once the list is generated, we reach out to see if those businesses are interested in participating in the conference. A new Friend of SWIB this year is Helen Ficalora, a jewelry designer with a new store located in Soho. Helen Ficalora was interested in participating in this year's SWIB conference as she has been involved with "several projects involving not for profit organizations that work with women's and children's issues as well as the Michael J Fox Foundation for Parkinson's research." She believes sponsorship is an important part of her business "because it allows people to see that we are involved with women's issues at many levels. Part of the mission of Helen Ficalora is to give back."

There are a variety of Friends of SWIB - they come in all shapes and sizes. Friends for this year's conference range in size from international brands such as Kraft Foods to a local jewelry shop in Soho, Lunessa. While some of the Friends of SWIB are larger and better known, most are local entrepreneurial ventures. Cindy Barshop, owner of Completely Bare, a local NYC spa believes that "sponsorships are very important to me as a small business owner. I understand how much it supports other small businesses and especially NYC. It's a dual-benefit for both parties and it feels great to participate and lend a hand". Donations also vary across Friends of SWIB sponsors. Below are a sample of the generous donations we received this year: a mouth-watering variety of cupcakes by Sweet Revenge, a beautiful necklace for the raffle by Dannijo, a 10-class package for the raffle and free class cards for the goodie bags by Exhale Spa, and coupon cards for a variety of adventures by Urban Escapes.

SWIB friendships are extremely important to us, not only because conference attendees get firsthand experience with the products and services of these businesses, but also because our friendships enable Friends of SWIB to have a direct conversations with conference attendees. By participating as a friend of SWIB, Helen Ficalora hopes to connect her "business with other women who are interested in success by way of kindness and grace therefore leading the way for women to create a model based on our innate feminine aspects and abilities." Join us for the SWIB Conference on Friday February 5th and we promise that our Friends of SWIB won't disappoint!