Join us as we celebrate International Women's Day with a diverse panel of entrepreneurs and discuss this year's theme #ChoosetoChallenge. We know firsthand the trials and tribulations of 2020 in the meetings, events, incentives, tradeshow, sports, and hotel industry. Our moderator and author Valerie Gangas will lead the discussion as we hear how each female entrepreneur was able to navigate their businesses.
Whether you already know these ladies and their businesses, or this will be your first time meeting them, we are thrilled to introduce an all-star panel of unique leading women in each industry: F&B, fitness and fashion.
Our goal of this panel is to be enlightened to new thoughts, ideas, and equipped with a few key takeaways to apply to your business, your life, and your brand.
MODERATOR:
Valerie Gangas, Best Selling Author, Speaker, Life Coach, & Spiritual Guru
Equal parts grounded, kick-ass provocateur, and all-embracing spiritual mystic, Valerie Gangas is known by friends and colleagues alike as a “force of nature.” She is also a highly active social media ace, life coach, speaker on personal transformation, and author of the Amazon bestseller, Enlightenment Is Sexy: Every Woman’s Guide to a Magical Life (2016). Following her first Transcendental Meditation experience in the winter of 2011, Valerie's subsequent “awakening” inspired a non-stop outpouring of creativity and insight—especially targeted for women—thus, her first book was born.
Valerie has since worked alongside the David Lynch Foundation and Oprah Winfrey (and her staff at Harpo Studios), speaking to large groups nationwide about meditation and the benefits of expanding consciousness. She and her work have also been featured in interviews and articles everywhere from WGN-Radio’s The Patti Vasquez Show Patti Vasquez Show (100K listeners per show) to Thrive Global (over 5 million unique website visitors per month). She has also contributed articles to Spirituality & Health magazine (7.5 million readers) and the main Transcendental Meditation website (where her first blog has been shared over 25K times).
In her work as a transformational coach, Valerie has helped thousands of women navigate times of profound change, move beyond loss, and overcome the barriers blocking them from accessing their inner superpowers—a message that she continues to spread with her recently launched podcast, Everything You Think You Know Is Wrong. Valerie also holds a Bachelor of Arts in Comparative Religious Studies and Women’s Studies from DePaul University and a Master of Arts in Transpersonal Psychology from Sofia University.
PANELISTS:
Nina Berenato, Award Winning Owner, Founder Nina Berenato Jewelry in Austin, TX
"Nina's all female team of Texas women is revolutionizing the jewelry industry and what it means to be a modern maker." - Austin Monthly
After completing her Bachelor of Arts in Fashion Design at University of Missouri, Nina Berenato moved to New York and through a stroke of luck, met a jewelry designer who was seeking a production metal smithing apprentice. Nina began her first year of apprenticeship under Elizabeth Knight in 2010 but ended up working under the well-known Brooklyn-based designer for the next five years. Under her mentor's guidance, Nina honed her craft and released her first self-designed and fabricated collection, Cosmic, after just one year of study.
While in NYC, she bootstrapped her business, working odd jobs like passing out fliers for a parking garage from 6am-8am before heading to the studio, bartending on the weekends and working as a buyer for a local retail store in the evenings. Nina grew her wholesale business little by little over the next 4 years, eventually stocking her line in over 200 shops over the US and Canada including Free People, Urban Outfitters and Uncommon Goods.
Through the advice of a free business adviser at the NYC Small Business Association, in 2015 Nina moved to Austin, TX and turned her focus to brick and mortar retail. After noticing the food truck culture around Texas, Nina decided to create a one-of-a-kind mobile jewelry store built inside of a 1959 Airstream Bambi travel trailer. With her trailer boutique in tow, she did pop-ups all over Texas and quickly became a well-known fixture in Austin’s growing maker community. It was in Austin that Nina realized the full potential her line had, as women all over the state flooded her mobile shop to purchase her designs and meet the designer in person.
Two years later, Nina reached a life-long goal and opened her 1900 sq ft brick and mortar flagship store, recently named Best Jewelry Store in Austin. At the Nina Berenato flagship you'll find Nina's original designs uniquely displayed, the work of other local female artists featured, a one-of-a-kind metal smithing studio buzzing - as classes and workshops take place each week, and most important of all, Nina at her bench, still producing each and every piece of the collection herself.
In 2019 Nina was commissioned to create ten custom face masks for Beyonce's ‘Spirit’ and 'Black is King' Visual Music Video and, a project that launched the designer into the global spotlight. Since then, she has dressed musicians like Lizzo, Chole x Halle, Billie Eilish, Alicia Keys and more as the celebrity elite continue to follow the designer and support her work.
Most recently, Nina turned her focus to teaching as a way to continue sharing her passion for American-made manufacturing and small business mentorship. Last year she completed her Women’s Entrepreneurship Certification through Cornell University and taught her signature method to over 400 aspiring jewelry designers.
June Rodil, Master Sommelier & Partner Goodnight Hospitality
Born in the Philippines and raised in Texas, June joined Houston-based, freshly formed Goodnight Hospitality as a partner in 2019 and opened two new concepts the same year: Montrose Cheese & Wine and Rosie Cannonball, a 2020 James Beard Award semifinalist for Outstanding Wine Program. Ever nimble and fighting for survival in the landscape of independently owned restaurants amidst a global pandemic, her company opened three seasonal pop-ups, evolved and added online sales, webinars, and catering in the last year. With hard work and much hope for the future, Goodnight Hospitality will open their fine dining concept, MARCH in spring 2021.
Previously, June was VP of Operations for McGuire Moorman Hospitality, based in Austin, TX, and headed operations for 11 concepts. She remains a partner in June’s All Day, her namesake restaurant that was named one of Food & Wine magazine's Restaurants of the Year in 2017. In her career June has opened over a dozen hospitality concepts with numerous James Beard Award winners and nominees and Food & Wine magazine’s Best New Chefs.
She is known as a leader in the beverage community and her accolades include: Wine Enthusiast’s Sommelier of the Year 2018; Wine Enthusiast 40 Under 40 2016; Key Panelist at Women in Wine Leadership Symposium and numerous Food & Wine Festivals across the nation; Food & Wine magazine's Sommelier of the Year 2014 (she is the only person to have received the Restaurants of the Year & Sommelier of the Year accolade in Food & Wine history), Star Chef's Rising Star Sommelier 2012, Wine & Spirits Best New Sommelier 2011, TEXSOM Best Sommelier Winner 2009 and is one of 29 women in the Americas to earn the Master Sommelier credential.
An avid sparkling wine drinker and determined to find cause for celebration in day to day life, in 2017 she launched her private label wine, June's Brut Rosé, with Austrian winemaker Markus Huber.
Outside of her passion for restaurant operations and championing diversity and inclusion in the hospitality industry, June loves doing crossword puzzles with her husband, obsessing over her dog, admiring art she can't afford, avoiding regular exercise, and laughing really heartily with her friends.
Melody Afkami, Founder Melody DanceFit
“Workout with a WHY.”
Melody Afkami is the CEO and founder of a mobile fitness brand, Melody DanceFit. MDF offers a new style of fitness, blending positive psychology with intense cardio in a club atmosphere. Before starting DanceFit, Melody was in the world of corporate technology, but quickly found herself unfulfilled and restless. After teaching Zumba and volunteering with Dress for Success, she decided to create her own brand with a focus on women empowerment and philanthropy. DanceFit has cultivated a dedicated community of people who consistently show up and fill concert venues as big as Emo’s Austin – not only for the workout, but for the continuous reminder to celebrate themselves. Melody was named Most Moving Instructor by ClassPass 4 years in a row and has been featured in Texas Monthly, CBS, Austin Monthly, Austin Fit, and Austin MD. Melody now digitally offers her unique teaching style at www.melodydancefit.com with weekly livestream classes and an on-demand library of dance workouts, breakdown tutorials, and more. Melody’s life mission is to showcase that anyone + everyone can dance, and her viral YouTube video “Havana” boasting more than 35 million views certainly proves that.
