Tanya Grimson Is Co-Founder/Editor Of Maven46, an interactive fashion and lifestyle magazine. We caught up with the fashion guru to find out about her exciting new event, Be.
Tell us about the Be Event.
Be is a one day summit for women, created for women to bring entrepreneurship, style and creativity together under one roof. It’s taking place this Saturday, September 22nd, and we are hosting 21 incredible women who are experts in their individual fields.
We will have four quarters on the day: Inspire, Fashion, Beauty and Life. The event is to allow all women in all walks of life to come together, support each other and learn from each other in an environment that encourages women to be the best version of themselves.
The Inspire Quarter features incredible women such as former commissioner for start-ups, Niamh Bushnell talking about her ambition to raise €100m funding for female tech entrepreneurs with her company Tech Ireland.
Irish rugby player, Megan Williams will be talking about facing adversity head-on by playing a traditionally male-dominated sport and the fitness regimes she advocates for.
Áine Mulloy, founder of Girl Crew will be speaking about her motivations for starting Girl Crew, raising investment from the US and the challenges she met along the way.
Trudy Hayes will be speaking about how she went from being a freelance hairdresser to the owner of her own tech app, Raven, that brings beauty to you.
The Inspire Quarter speakers will give their insights, tips and also the lessons they have learnt along their entrepreneurial path.
In The Fashion Quarter we have the very best fashion specialists on hand, such as Author, Anne Marie O’Connor, who will be speaking about how to declutter your wardrobe.
I will be speaking to top fashion stylist, Sinead Keenan about how to translate high fashion editorial looks into easy-to-adapt outfits that can enhance your professional appearance but help you stay style savvy too.
We also have the celebrity stylist to supermodel Jordan Dunne, Joolie Collier speaking and Lorna Weightman will be discussing how to adapt this seasons trends to your body shape.
In The Beauty Quarter, we have MUA’s Judy Wong, Nadine Reid, founder of Fetch Beauty, Lucy Mcphail, Lauren Healy, nutritional therapist, tacking all your beauty questions and needs.
We will be opening the floor up to pick the brains of Nadine, Lucy and MUA Marina Granville on our panel discussion, so if you have an impending wedding or simply want to know which beauty product you must have to solve your skin problems, we have the best of the best on hand to help solve all of your beauty needs.
In The Life Quarter, we have career coach Paula Coogan talking about how to be the best version of yourself career-wise, Love coach, Persia Lawson offering her own insights into representing yourself the best way in relationships.
We have interior advice from the founder of Dust Studios and an introduction to Feng Sui, from Feng Sui expert and designer, Katarina Gummelt. While Kara Heriot, founder of Mum Talks will be discussing how we can have it all: a career and still be a great parent without the guilt and how to return to work post-pregnancy with confidence.
All of this will be taking place in one day, under one roof. Our schedules are available here so you can pick and choose your talk and make the day whatever you want it to be.
Why did you undertake this event?
This event has been a passion and an idea of mine for over two years and as a female founder myself in both the tech and fashion space, I have felt that women are too often compartmentalized and forced to fit into stereotypical one-dimensional boxes.
This was something that was continuously appeared when I was in investment conversations with men and I felt it was time to not only stop comparing ourselves to men but to encourage our own three-dimensional capabilities.
Why should you not be interested in beauty if you work in tech or why can’t you be as interested in fashion trends and what to wear as a business women?
I felt that female entrepreneurs and women in tech were not represented in the right way and we needed to stop creating a division among ourselves and instead join forces and celebrate all of our interests as that is the reality we live in.
We multi-task; we’re parents, we’re single, we’re all trying to cope in a crazy busy world, whatever that world is for you and that is why we wanted to be as creative and open with our topics on the day.
There really is something for everyone with some topics being relevant to some and others to others.
Most of all we wanted women to make the day their own and pick and choose the talks that will hopefully enrichen and benefit their lives.
I won’t be happy unless everyone goes away with one nugget of advice or a new piece of information they didn’t know before.
But we also wanted to make the day fun, you can get your nails done for free at the Mavala nail bar, free beauty top-ups from Raven beauty app, free refreshments and free lunch thanks to Just Eat and Freshii, so once you pay for your ticket, you get lots of goodies included.
Not to mention we have spot prizes which include beauty hampers from Fetch Beauty, restaurant vouchers and a €500 shopping spree from Zalando.ie to name but a few.
What does your day to day work look like?
I am the founder, Editor and CEO of a digital publishing company, maven46.com and I am responsible for running and growing the company, its content and managing my team.
My daily job is a mixture of everything from coming up with ideas for branded campaigns, managing campaigns, doing photo or video shoots, talking on the radio promoting us, editing content and then building the business, which is a whole other job by itself.
Irish fashion - where is it at now and what you would love to see us wearing on the streets of Ireland for autumn/winter?
Irish fashion is genuinely really incredible at the moment, we have a wealth of homegrown talent and despite the household names that people are more familiar with, such as Simone Rocha, there are so many incredible designers that are making huge marks on our design scene.
I am also seeing a lot more people incorporating Irish design into their outfits whether it’s through accessories or their one stand-out investment piece.
This is something I would love to see more of, as although we all love our high street, real personality in your clothing comes from those individual pieces that people comment on and make you and your outfit feel special.
They also tend to be not trend-driven which gives them more longevity and special meaning.
In terms of trends, I predict cord and checks to be the most sought-after trends for AW18, there is lots of 70's inspired clothing around and these represent it in the easiest way without looking like a direct throwback to the decade.
For more information and to buy tickets to the Be event, click here.
