‘Soul food’ for women

The Life + Style brand, spearheaded by Mango Media Caribbean’s managing director, Judette Coward, is launching its first event, Cocktails and Conversations, next month.

Coward says she was driven to create the brand after a conversation with a friend.

“I was compelled to create Forward Forty after a conversation with my friend, Sheena Thorpe, who at the end of her fourth decade, opened her gift store at a shopping mall. Sheena is beautiful, determined, and authentic, but during a run last September, she mentioned that maybe she might have passed the age to achieve a particular feat that she wanted to.

And as I tried to convince her that she was not, it was in that second that the idea for Forward Forty was born,” Coward said.

“Culture and advertising dictates to us that after 40, we no longer matter! But we do, and Forward Forty came about as a way to engage women who have stories to tell. It’s a way for me to be the conduit for other women to raise their own voice. I’ve always been a storyteller, but it was the energy of the people who engaged with the initial videos that I put up, watched and then shared them that motivated me to create the blog and the movement.” The brand is set to launch its inaugural Cocktails and Conversations experience bringing together four thought-provoking speakers, cuisine by award-winning chef Debra Metivier, an exclusive marketplace, and the company of some of the most engaging women in TT for an evening-long event.

Under the theme of “If Not Now, When?” the soulful event aims to inspire women to take charge of their lives, and to motivate them to transform their current realities into their ideal ones.

The event will feature conversations by Malene Barnett, a New York City-based creative entrepreneur and leading textile designer for brands such as Martha Stewart, Tory Burch and Saks Fifth Avenue among others, and Maria Daniel, a partner at Ernst and Young, Trinidad, who leads a female-dominated department in a male-dominated service line. Dianne Hunt, the founder of the popular Dianne’s Tea Shop and the former designer and co-owner of Radical Designs as well as Sharon Christopher, former deputy CEO at First Citizens and now a leadership development consultant at Sharon Christopher and Associates, are also included in the cast of conversationalists.

Together, the four will cover a wide range of topics from self-discovery and riding oneself of “mental recession,” to being authentic to oneself and manifesting the power of intuition.

Following the conversations, the event will ease into an evening of cocktails by the House of Angostura and hors d’oeuvres served poolside by award-winning chef, Debra Metivier. A part of the venue will be dedicated to an exclusive bazaar with booths from some of Trinidad’s most sought-after brands and pop-ups, including the multinational cosmetics company Revlon, Oscar Francois and its wildly popular Aunt Jackie’s line, among others.

“What I’m most looking forward to is serving ‘soul food’ the kind that shines through the cuisine, music and cocktails, but mostly importantly, through the connections that women will make,” Coward said.

Cocktails and Conversations is part of Forward Forty’s larger commitment to providing enriching experiences, products, and content to women aged 40 and over. In the coming months, the brand is expected to roll out a slew of additional initiatives, including a health and fitness vertical dubbed “Forward Forty Moves”, and an e-commerce site highlighting merchandise and hand-picked products catering to women.

Cocktails and Conversations takes place on October 2 at the picturesque Drew Manor in the Santa Cruz Valley. Tickets to the experience are now on sale and can be bought online at http://forwardforty.

com/theexperience.

For more info information: judette@ forwardforty.com, marketing@ forwardforty.com or Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube.