Over a 16 year period, 1997-2013, the number of women-owned businesses in the United States increased at a rate of 59%--1.5 times the national average. The more than 8.6 million U.S. women-owned businesses account for nearly 7.8 million jobs and over $1.3 trillion in revenue.¹ Despite this astounding growth, women-led businesses still face a unique set of challenges.

WomanCon 2013 aims to address those challenges with real-life lessons and advice from successful female entrepreneurs and small business owners. The goal of the event is to build and grow a network of women business owners and industry leaders to share successes, failures and best practices learned along the way. Taking place at New York's CUNY Graduate Center onWednesday, September 25 at 8:30AM ET, the event will feature expert keynotes and panel discussions from angel investors, venture capitalists, startup experts, journalists, PR and branding professionals including:

• Kay Koplovitz, Founder, USA Network
• Julie Cottineau, Founder and CEO, BrandTwist
• Susan McPherson, SVP & Director of Global Marketing, Fenton
• Brett Savage-Simon, Senior Manager of Media Relations, PR Newswire
• JJ Ramberg, Host of MSNBC's Your Business

"Many times we don't tap in to the most valuable resource we have, which is our network and connections," says Laura Leites, Founder and Producer of WomanCon, Principal, L2 Event Production. "People will help you, you just have to ask."

To register for the event, click here: http://prn.to/womancon