Identifying Chennai’s ‘mompreneurs’

Antara Pandit and Moena Memon are the faces behind InspirED Moms, an initiative that has been devised to encourage women to continue being professionals.

“InspirED stands for Inspiration + Education. Being bloggers, both of us had already developed a wide network of women — and after meeting around six months, decided it would be ideal to team up and further our cause. We are now planning our first event to promote the platform — ‘Ignite. Inspire.

Impact’ — a panel discussion by women achievers in Chennai,” says Moena, who is known for her blog Mommymojo, which acts as a resource centre for new mothers to discover brands, products, etc.

The event will see five panellists — author and former Miss India Swetha Jaishankar, founder of aLphabet School Kavitha Saraf, co-founder of Slurrp Farm Meghana Narayan, Mahima Poddar of the Kindness Project and founder of Life by Design Puja Puneer share their entrepreneurial journeys in an interactive meeting with women across Chennai. Actress Sriya Reddy will be the keynote speaker.

The panellists met on Monday to familiarise themselves with each other, as well as establish a comfort level before the event in April. Designed to increase the number of ‘mompreneurs’ in Chennai at first, the two friends plan to take it nationally soon.

Antara, who blogs at The Bubbly Blogcast, says that the idea was borne out of a need to help other moms they could relate to. “It’s not just women from Chennai — we have had many from all over India and other countries also become part of our network. We are expecting close to 150 participants at our first event, where they will interact with the panel, and then collaborate, share stories, and so on.

They will also be able to keep in touch with these panellists and work towards their self-goals. Next up, we also want to set up individual workshops as well as a resource fair of sorts where moms can come and seek job opportunities,” she explains.