March 28, 2026 · Orléans, Ottawa · Shenkman Arts Centre
There’s something about a train journey that sets the right tone for everything that follows.
On the morning of March 27, I boarded the train from Québec to Ottawa with my husband Yannick and my friend and PR collaborator Susanne of Communication Susanne Bergmann. We had luggage, laptops, and a quiet kind of excitement, the kind you feel when you know something is about to matter.
I am a digital nomad. I build things in motion. And on this particular morning, we were moving toward the first-ever edition of the Successful Women Expo outside of Québec QC, Canada where we have been holding it for 10 years.
We arrived in Ottawa and went straight to the home of our friend and local ambassador Rachelle Francoeur, herself a digital nomad, a woman who has built her life with intention and freedom. She opened her home to us without hesitation. That’s the kind of people I surround myself with.
That evening, we gathered with my friend, mentor, and holistic wealth creator Imie Bélanger. Around the table, there was warmth, laughter, strategy, and the particular energy that flows when people who believe in each other are in the same room.
This is my team. Not just for logistics… for everything.
The 2026 theme is Let Your Projects Blossom.
I chose it because I’ve learned - sometimes the hard way - that projects don’t explode into existence. They germinate. They push through the dark. They need tending, patience, and the right conditions to open.
On March 28, at the Shenkman Arts Centre in Ottawa (Orléans), more than 25 women entrepreneurs gathered in a space that felt nothing like a trade show and everything like a conversation. Intimate. Human-scale. Real.
I spoke about my own journey: from research scientist to entrepreneur, from the lab bench to the stage, from asking questions about molecules to asking questions about what it means to build something of your own. It was one of those talks where the room gets very quiet, not because people are bored, but because they’re recognising something in themselves.
Our MC, the brilliant Mireille Houndji Boté, set a tone for the day that I won’t forget anytime soon.
She wrote afterward about the talk that moved her most: Olympic judoka Ana Laura Portuondo Isasi, who spoke with disarming honesty about failure and perseverance. The message wasn’t a motivational poster. It was something more human than that.
Failure is part of the path. And no matter what happens, no matter how many times you fall, how many projects don’t bloom the way you expected, how many rooms you walk into unsure of yourself, you always get to choose what comes next.
That’s the throughline of everything we do at the Successful Women Expo. Not “succeed at all costs.” Not “fail fast.” But: you are the author of what follows.
I’m still thinking about it.
After the event, Ottawa MP Marie-France Lalonde posted on Instagram and Facebook praising the expo and its leadership. For a first edition in a new city, that kind of recognition isn’t something you take for granted.
Attendee and vendor Joëlle Muyila shared her experience of the meaningful connections she made, the kind that don’t happen when you’re handed a lanyard and pointed toward a buffet table. The kind that happen when someone looks you in the eye and says tell me about what you’re building.
That’s what we come for. That’s what we create.
The Successful Women Expo is growing. My vision is to bring this experience to cities across Canada, always intimate, always in both official languages (English & French), always built around the idea that women’s projects deserve space to breathe and bloom.
If you want to follow this journey, the behind-the-scenes, the cities, the conversations, the women who make it happen, become a Paid Subscriber. This is where I share what doesn’t make it to the press release.
And if you’re reading this from a city that should have its own edition, reach out. Let’s talk about what could grow there.
À bientôt, Charlotte Habegger, Founder & President, Successful Women Expo
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