June 5, 2026 · Winnipeg, Manitoba
A half-day empowerment summit for women entrepreneurs and leaders who are done playing small and ready to move with strategy, capital, and visibility on their side.
Why This Summit Exists
You've built something real. You're leading, deciding, growing and still, the spaces that exist feel too casual, too surface-level, or simply not built for where you're headed.
What's been missing is a premium, strategy-first room built specifically for women who are scaling businesses, leading teams, and making decisions that carry real weight.
The SAvvy Women's Empowerment Summit was built to fill that gap. Not a networking mixer. Not a panel of inspiration. A focused, high-calibre room where the conversations actually move the needle.
The Experience
The day is structured around three expert-led fireside conversations, each focused on a lever that actually moves businesses forward in 2026.
Not hype, strategy. How to integrate AI into your operations, decision-making, and growth without losing what makes your business distinctly yours.
Practical, direct insight on funding, grants, and financial positioning from people who are actively advising founders at a high level.
How to own the room you're already in and build the platform that earns you access to the rooms you haven't entered yet.
Who This Is For
If you've ever left an event thinking that was nice, but where's the strategy, this was built for you. This is a room for women who are already doing the work and want to accelerate it.
The room is intentionally capped to protect the quality of conversation, the access to speakers, and the depth of connection. When it's full, it's full. Early registration is the only way to guarantee your seat.
Speaker Lineup
Every speaker is locally respected, actively operating in their field, and bringing real-world insight, not aspirational talking points.
Natalie Bell is a senior People and Culture Consultant, Facilitator, Coach, and Speaker with over 25 years of progressive HR experience. Known for her energetic presence and no-fluff approach, she creates the kind of spaces where people feel seen, heard, and valued. Named to the Top 100 Accomplished Black Canadian Women for 2026 and a CPHR Manitoba Momentum Award winner, Natalie serves as President of the Congress of Black Women of Manitoba and Board Director at the Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce. She brings deep roots in the Winnipeg business community and the kind of warmth that makes a room come alive.
A senior executive with over 25 years of experience, Loretta is a former SVP of Business Modernization at Canada Life and is a founding board member of the Manitoba Association of AI Professionals, which co-developed the AI Readiness Assessment with the Manitoba Chambers of Commerce. She leads strategic AI adoption and governance conversations across Manitoba's business community.
Joelle is the President and CEO of North Forge Technology Exchange, which she co-founded in 2015 and leads today as one of North America's largest publicly accessible fabrication and innovation hubs. With over 20 years supporting Canadian entrepreneurs, she also co-manages the Women's Equity Lab Manitoba Fund and sits on the international board of the Technology Councils of North America.
Kiera is the CEO and founder of Ribit AI, a platform transforming how automotive dealerships connect with customers through intelligent, empathy-driven AI technology. Before Ribit, she built Little Box of Rocks into a viral international brand featured on the gift guides of Gwyneth Paltrow and Cameron Diaz.
As co-managing partner of the Women's Equity Lab Manitoba Fund, Joelle is actively working to increase the number of women angel investors in the province. She has spent her career creating funding pathways for founders at every stage, from early ideation through to growth and acceleration.
Jackie is the CEO of WeMB (Women's Enterprise Manitoba), Manitoba's leading organization for women-identifying entrepreneurs. Founded in 1994 as the first federally funded Women's Enterprise Initiative in Western Canada, WeMB provides business loans from $5,000 to $150,000, free expert advising, hands-on training, and a thriving professional network across the province.
Alla is the Regional Manager, Prairies, of the Women in Enterprise division at TD Bank — an MBA-qualified leader with deep expertise in helping entrepreneurs navigate banking, borrowing, and business financing. She works directly with women business owners across the prairies to connect them with the right financial tools at the right stage of growth.
Kiera has built two distinct businesses from the ground up, each demonstrating what it looks like to lead with a clear brand voice and visible authority. From earning international media coverage as a solo entrepreneur to founding an AI company targeting North American scale, she brings a practitioner's perspective on visibility, storytelling, and showing up with confidence.
Christine is the founder of the Winnipeg Women's Conference, one of the most popular conferences in the prairies, as well as the Winnipeg Women's Community and The Alliance mastermind group. She identified a gap in the market for premium, executive-level women's leadership spaces and built one that now sells out every year.
Nicole is a former CTV journalist and host of Winnipeg's number one morning show, now founder of Dubé Media — a media training and communications consulting firm. With over 20 years of storytelling experience, she helps business leaders craft compelling messages and command any stage, camera, or boardroom with clarity and confidence.
Shana Robinson is a speaker and networking strategist who helps entrepreneurs turn in-person events into profitable connections. Known as the party-starter, she brings a signature facilitation experience called Lime Time, a Caribbean-inspired approach to networking built around intentional, momentum-building conversation. One right connection positioned her to turn a single speaking engagement into $100,000 in three months.
Behind the Event
What You'll Walk Away With
You've sat through enough sessions that left you feeling good but no different. This is designed to give you tools, connections, and clarity you can actually use.
Leave with a clearer picture of the next move, whether that's a funding approach, an AI integration, or a visibility play you hadn't considered.
Curated networking with women at a similar level who have the same appetite for real conversation. The kind of connections that become long-term relationships.
Fireside format means you hear from leaders doing the work and you get to ask the questions that actually matter to your business.
Every session is designed around actionable takeaways, not theory. You'll walk out with something you can move on before the week is done.
Event Details
Why You Can Trust This
This isn't aspirational branding. It's a summit built on a clear content strategy, a disciplined financial model, and partnerships with established Winnipeg business institutions.
Every speaker is locally respected and actively operating in their field. These are founders, investors, and executives who are doing the work right now, not just talking about it.
Manitoba Club isn't just a backdrop. It signals the calibre of the room and the seriousness of the experience you're investing in.
This event is a direct extension of the SAvvy mission: creating spaces where women lead from a place of strategy and truth. Every detail has been built with that intention.
Seats are capped at 80 to 100. There are no waitlists and no second chances. If this is the room you've been waiting for, this is the moment to claim your place in it.