LOHAS: Growth of the Sheconomy

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I was able to sit in on a panel of four impressive women:

Diane MacEachern – Founder & CEO, Big Green Purse (moderator)
Gretchen Bleiler – Olympic Snowboarder
Tina Wells – CEO, Buzz Marketing Group
Margaret McAllister – Co-Founder, Red Kite Business Advisors

I think we all can gather that women are a driving force in the consumer world and have an extreme amount of buying power within the green movement. They strive to “do it all” melding work, play, family, themselves, and all the while wanting to do it all in an eco-friendly way. Hints the growing sheconomy.

Statistics were shared such as,

• 70% of new businesses are started by women.

• Women over 50 are in fact dominating the world wide web and other social media websites (sorry Waylon).

• And the “mancession” has taken effect with 10.5% of men unemployed as of 2010, while only 8.6% of women were unemployed.

More than the information presented, I was completely enamored with the each speaker. They were all strong, succesfull, and smart women who never skipped a beat when speaking. They each had something different to say, their own flavor to add, and own personal style – especially Gretchen Bleiler decked out in her gray Tom’s wedges.

This panel, more than any other I attended that day, encouraged the audience to participate. It was more much more of an inclusive discussion, ranging from topics of marketing to women, how to market to different age segments, and even how men feel about taking more of the “women’s” roles.

It was great to experience, listen, and learn from a group a women, and men in the audience, that had first hand experience.