Georgia Tech Enterprise Innovation Institute for the National Women’s Business Council
First published July 2009
On April 29, 2009, a town hall meeting of women business owners was held in Atlanta at the Georgia Institute of Technology’s Student Center. Hosted and facilitated by the National Women’s Business Council (NWBC), this meeting was the seventh in a series of meetings that began in March 2007. NWBC designed these conversations to generate grassroots‐level recommendations from women business owners for the ultimate consideration of the President, Congress, and the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA).
Over 700 women business owners participated in the seven NWBC meetings held throughout the country. Participants represented a range of businesses from various industry sectors, sizes, and stages of development. Also present at each of the meetings were representatives of the NWBC and local, state, and federal entities interested in better serving the needs of women business owners.
This report intertwines the findings of the discussions the NWBC facilitated from March 2007 through April 2009. There is a particular emphasis on the most recent meeting held in Atlanta, to reflect that meeting’s intent to determine how women business owners’ needs may have changed amid the current national economic downturn