Celebrating local Women

Photos by: HJRR PHOTOGRAPHY

A Partnership to Support Local Women in Business

When our local chamber saw other communities honoring women in business, they knew it would be a great fit for Henderson. Field & Main Bank is a member of the chamber and also one of their top sponsors throughout the year for chamber events. In conversation, Lindsay Locasto, President of the Henderson Chamber of Commerce, learned that Field & Main Bank’s marketing director was wanting to host an event very similar for their own employees. After meeting together, they realized they had the same vision and decided they would work together to bring this event to Henderson. 

Lindsay said, “It worked well. They were able to give a $25 discount to anyone who was a customer of the bank—so it was a nice sponsorship perk for them.” Other local banks were also sponsors for the event. Male-owned businesses wanted to show their support and sponsor as well.

It was important to make this event different from your normal chamber event. “We wanted to have it more of a celebration and party rather than your after work business dinner with awards and a speaker,” expressed Lindsay. Sarah Bryant with Field & Main Bank was very helpful working with Lindsay and her staff in making this event successful and different from a typical chamber event. 

The Event 

The first year of this new event, the chamber pushed formal/cocktail attire. They told the attendees to dress up and put on something fun. It was important for them to be conservative the first year. For the second year, they decided to go with a theme and chose Taylor Swift. “Everybody went into character. We said sequins and glitter and every single person was in some sort of Taylor Swift era attire,” Lindsay said. 

After the first year was so successful, they were able to get more sponsorships this past year. All the awards were sponsored for the event, and they were able to increase the amount of awards going into more avenues of their chamber memberships. 

Both 2022 and 2023 have been sold out with 200 people in attendance. The chamber tries to use female-owned vendors as much as possible. Their florist, caterers, bartender and event spaces were all female owned or co-owned. The first year the event was held at Farmer & Frenchman and the second year at The Vault in downtown Henderson. They hope to alternate between these two venues each year. 

The first year the event was new and people didn’t really know what it was. After the event took place in 2022 and photos went out, businesses were eager to show their support in 2023. The Eras of Women in Business event was also one of the first events to use the 360 photo booth with Frank’s Memory Booth. Lindsay stated how they weren’t sure how popular the photobooth would be, but it was a highlight and everyone had so much fun with it. 

The evening schedule was provided to attendees before the night of the event. Lindsay sent an agenda for the night including parking, what time to arrive, drink ticket, table and table name. “Each person had everything in advance before they walked in. We didn’t want any added stress. We just wanted the ladies to have a good time!”

The night began with a cocktail hour before everyone found their assigned seats. “We wanted to pay attention to the details. We used the names of Taylor Swift’s ex boyfriends as table names.” Each table was sponsored, and they paired people up with who they thought would have good conversations at their table. Dinner was served followed by the awards. “We decided not to do a speaker and just make it a party. We had a photobooth again and this year a friendship bracelet table to go along with the Taylor Swift theme. After the awards was an after party with dancing and karaoke. 

The Awards

The chamber opened up nominations for a month.  This year they had over 70 nominations and were able to give out seven different awards. Females on the chamber board were the nominating committee. These women were given the names to look through. “All of these women were so deserving,” expressed the proud chamber president. It was a very difficult choice to narrow down the nominations, but they tried to look at who in the past year had gone above and beyond within their areas of expertise. Once the board had chosen the winners, the awards were ordered and they tried to make sure those award winners were there and did not know. Lindsay stated, “Sometimes it’s difficult but makes it fun to keep secretive. It’s exciting because we all know who it is here but we keep it pretty underwraps.” 

People are already wanting to sponsor and get tickets for next year. Lindsay explained how they had a male board member to say, “This is really setting the tone to make things equal. It’s nice to see the playing field leveled out because of events like this that go on.” Men are welcome to attend the event, but 99% of women are in attendance. It is also important for them to recognize all of the nominations submitted by calling out all of the names of the women who were nominated for an award. “It is really exciting to see the women receive the awards and lift each other up and be supportive,” Lindsay said.

“I think a lot of women like to see everyone dressed up and feeling good about themselves at the event. You see people in your normal day-to-day business attire. Everyone really dressed up and played the part. You could just feel the confidence. I think everyone likes that it is mainly females to relax, have fun and laugh. Being able to see women dress up and feel good about themselves. That was definitely one of the highlights!”

March is Women’s History Month. Last year, the chamber featured a “Woman of the Day” award and local women passed it along to small businesses throughout the month of March. “With Taylor Swift, it was more than just the popularity of her but how strong of a business woman she is and tie that into the event,” expressed Lindsay.

What’s Next? 

The chamber received a lot of feedback from the community by submitting names of people they thought were deserving.  “It was a lot of women nominating other women and lifting each other up.” Many are wondering how they are going to top this year. The president excitedly shared they already have a theme for 2024.

The 2024 event date will be announced in February. Tickets will go on sale at the end of August—about 6 weeks out from the event. In 2022, the event was held in November but in 2023 it was held in October. The chamber is looking to keep the event in October moving forward. 

The Henderson Chamber of Commerce president could not be more excited about how wonderful this event has gone the last two years, and beyond thrilled to see it continue in years to come. She said, “It really is a lot of fun! With a theme, you never know how it’s going to go, but we have been lucky how people have embraced it. It encourages women in the community. We see you and it’s not going unnoticed. It’s good to have our peers recognize us. People deserve it, and it’s appreciated.”