Powerful Women/Mujeres Poderosas Expo celebrates women entrepreneurs

Women entrepreneurs came together to celebrate and share at the Powerful Women/Mujeres Poderosas Expo presented at the Pioneer Event Center in Grand Prairie on Thursday, March 8.

The Powerful Women Expo is a free workshop and expo where women from all over DFW learn from other successful women. Over a dozen speakers from several different career fields, including media, fashion, finance, and event planning, spoke with attendees, sharing their own experiences to encourage and empower others. The expo also featured a number of vendors, all of whom were women, as well as a fashion show featuring students from Dubiski Career High School.

Mary Dominguez-Santini, founder of the Powerful Women/Mujeres Poderosas expo, wanted to create an event where women from all walks of life could come together and learn from not only successful women, but from each other as well.

“Everyone is looking at us and what we’re doing in order to move forward in our positions and in our businesses,” Santini said. “And so I said, ‘We need to celebrate us – powerful women, mujeres poderosas.’ We’re mothers, we’re grandmothers, we’re housewives, we’re employers, or we work for someone else. It’s time for everybody to seek out the power inside and know how far they can go. We have so much power, and we need to translate that into something we can share.”

Santini geared the expo primarily to women who are interested in becoming entrepreneurs and creating their own business whether they are just starting out, or are looking for way to grow their current business. Sanitini said the expo has something for all women, regardless of where they are in their careers.

“There are people out there who want to start a business and don’t know where to go,” Santini said. “So, we have the chamber here, and we have chamber resources. We also have people who are already in business and don’t know how to grow their business. Every business needs branding, and needs promotion, and we can offer them this as well.”

One thing that makes the expo unique is the bilingual expo with presentations and speeches being conducted in both English and Spanish. Santini made the expo bilingual to get not just the Hispanic population involved, but all women involved.

“When I put together Mujeres Poderosas, I didn’t want to get just our Latinas involved,” Santini said. “I have friends from all over who are so diverse and so smart and creative, and I wanted them to come and learn from each other. They learn from me, I learn from them. We’re all women, and we have a lot to share. We need to interact and learn from each other so we can grow.”

One of the many speakers at the Powerful Women Expo was Mary Ann Kellam, president of the Irving Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. Kellam spoke with the attendees about how the chamber of commerce can assist women planning to start a business. Kellam herself is a big proponent for getting more women, especially Latinas, involved in business.

“[The expo] wanted me to come out and talk to the women who are attending about entrepreneurship and starting a business,” Kellam said. “That’s my cup of tea, so I’m here to support them. I’m very big on supporting Hispanic women wanting to go into business. It is one of the biggest populations, and if they’re going to start a business, I would rather they start it properly and make sure the structure is there, so they can be successful. If we don’t guide them, they’re going to fail.”

It is no coincidence the workshop also happened to coincide with International Women’s Day. Santini hopes all women attending this expo will not only grow their business, but also celebrate themselves not just on this day, but every day.

“My goal is to have everybody in DFW know about the expo, come and share their talents, and invite different women who are out there in business, so they can come and empower others,” Santini said. “We have so much to give, and we can do so much to transform a person’s life.”