BPW Westminster Event October 2005
TWO DAYS AT THE TOP

This year's Westminster visit took place over two wonderful sunny days in the Capital, and was the postponed itinerary from last year.

On a beautiful hot and bright Monday morning, members from all over the country had a tour of the Houses of Parliament, hearing historic facts and seeing for themselves where the business of running the country is done. Members admired the architecture, the art and the sheer stunning beauty of the Palace of Westminster, with a look at both Chambers, the Robing Room and the famous Central Lobby where politicians rub shoulders with the public and the media at the centre of the Mother of all Parliaments.

The host on the Monday, Vernon Coaker MP, was unfortunately called away to a Whips' Meeting so the group were unable to lunch in the Strangers Dining Room as originally intended. Instead Connect Public Affairs hosted a lunch in their board room with its impressive views of the river and South London. This was a useful opportunity for members to hear about their work and how they are helping to support BPW and raise its profile.

After lunch the braver members of the party mounted the 300 plus steps up to the top of Big Ben to enjoy staggering views of the Capital from almost 300 feet up. The party arrived in time to see and hear Big Ben chime 3.15pm and then went back down to the Clock Room to look at the mechanism. The guide was very informative, with a wealth of information about the history of the clock and appeared totally unphased when one member succumbed to a combination of heat, height and a glass of wine with her lunch. Ten minutes of lying down and the ministrations of two handsome first aiders soon brought the colour back to her cheeks and then everyone began to clamber back down the steps. The jury is still out as to which was harder - going up or coming down!

For the rest of the day, members went off to shop, eat and drink some more, and generally enjoy the cultural delights of the Capital.

Tuesday dawned just as bright and sunny with a select group gathering at the Royal Institution to enjoy a fascinating two hour tour of the building including the famous Faraday Lecture Theatre and the Faraday Museum. This was followed by a sprint, in various taxis, back to the House of Lords for a very enjoyable lunch hosted by Baroness Howe and attended by no less than twelve MPs. A stimulating debate ensued over lunch and a wide variety of topics were discussed around the tables. Many of the mostly female MPs indicated that they would be interested in being involved in a BPW Westminster group, further work is required to move this forward but Connect Public Affairs have offered to help in facilitating this process.

Some useful options for potential conference motions came from the debate, including the issues particularly facing women in business.

After a delicious lunch members left the House and headed for home.

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BPW Autumn Event – Looking after Me.

Whilst it’s known that change and stress are an almost inevitable part of life nowadays, both professional and personal, what is maybe not so well known is that both of these need not be the controlling factors on how we live and work.

This was shown quite clearly and positively at the 2005 BPW Autumn Event held in at the Novotel, Birmingham on 8th – 10th September.

The conference was put together by Pam Bellis, BPW Training & Development Director, in response to what members said they wanted in a recent questionnaire.

BPW offered the attendees four inspirational speakers giving different techniques and advice on how to enable us to take control of our lives and ensure that our own wellbeing has some higher priority!!

As a member of BPW in Northern Ireland, she finds a strong empathy with BPW’s organisational aim and values.

Coaching looks at our POTENTIAL and our POSSIBILITY. In between these two states are factors that Diane termed as INTERFERENCE, made up of 3 components:
• Low Self Esteem
• Fear
• Competition.

Coaching focuses our attention on removing that interference. A coach helps you work on recognising what is reality, removing the obstacles and limiting factors in your life. You can then achieve synchronicity between what you are and what you’re capable of.

Diane uses her non-directive approach with all her clients, working with individuals and major companies. This is quite a different approach to what many clients expect. Diane is a strong believer in people will only change themselves if they want to rather than just doing what they’re told. The audience wholeheartedly agreed with her!!

Diane Clutterbuck

Diane Clutterbuck

The next morning session was “Changing Change”. Deborah Rowland, is a leading consultant on organisational change, both nationally & internationally. She currently runs own business with her husband having been a high flyer with global organisations including Towers Perrin, PepsiCo & Shell. Her current clients include Shell, Diageo & Barclays.

Deborah is a firm believer that managing change with the least resistance in any organisation comes down to individuals and relies on how we face and deal with change personally.

• We don’t resist change per se we resist being changed. Sometimes change has to be initiated from above but people need to able to own the change that affects them, as people will only support what they feel they have created.
• It’s all about creating the conditions for change to occur. Leaders need the courage to give up control.
• There is no such thing as ‘static’ change, it is evolving all the time. She challenged us to go where there is “heat and noise” to find out what is happening in our own organisations.
• Structure drives behaviour therefore we need work on the ‘system’ as a whole – not just the parts.
• We need to surface and name so called “mental models”. This means reflecting on our own way of seeing the world e.g. is it causing the very system we are trying to change. We need to be aware of the organisation’s “culture”. Does the culture need to change first in order to move forward and if so how?
• We can only change what is happening now, that means living the change rather making it a continual “future plan”. Collusion with the status quo doesn’t bring change.
• Top Managers may need to create an ‘emotional’ distance from the employees whilst change is being shaped but still be part of the process. Change starts with the individual (i.e.YOURSELF)

Chris gave every attendee one of the most comprehensive stress management ‘goodie bags’ that we have ever encountered. Items covered all aspects of our lives, stress techniques, nutritional information, working life guides, smoking, loosing weight, healthy hearts etc as well their very own CD of her presentation, subject to copyright.

Chris went through the physical effects of stress and how hormonal changes give us the ability to fight or run away from threats. However most of us do not actually have the need to do the running our ancestors as stress does not have the sharp teeth of the sabre-toothed tiger!

She advocated that it is up to us to change our way of life – improving our diet and doing more exercise. Members of the audience particularly liked the idea of s5tarting to exercise slowly, starting with three minutes a day and building up week by week.

Chris also advised to have a plan B set up, an escape route from whatever stress we find ourselves under. It could be changing jobs, changing work practices, learning relaxation techniques or becoming more assertive. She shared some personal experiences from her own life as examples of what could happen if we did not make changes to reduce our stress levels.

Discussing how much of our lives are taken up by work, most of us came away determined to have a new look at how much time we reserve for looking after ourselves, starting with looking through the goodie bag!!

And finally a session on “Complementary Therapies”. Sue Bacon. Is trained in a range of complementary therapies such as aromatherapy, reflexology, hot stone massage, stress massage and hopi candles – which she offers to promote a sense of well-being. She is currently involved with the Marriott Group of hotels carrying out treatments for women of all ages and backgrounds who attend pamper weekends – many of whom have never the time to experience these before.

Sue suggested many uses for Aromatherapy oils. Putting the oils in tea candlelights, in a ceramic holder with water, on a hot or cold compress or in a footbath (use peppermint oil for relaxation and tea tree for athlete’s foot). Sprinkle lavender oil on the pillow to aid sleep, mix oils with rape seed or johoba oil or milk for baths, add drops to base cream for skin, or into shampoo. Eucalyptus can be used in a steam inhalation, two drops of any favourite essential oil can be added to the vacuum cleaner filter or put onto cotton wool on the radiator to make a room smell wonderful.

Sue recommended the following:
for environmental stress – basil / geranium / marjoram
for emotional stress – frankincense / ylang ylang / lavender
for physical stress – lavender / eucalyptus

Sue also stressed that essential oils are not to be used randomly. Mixes should not be too strong or too many. Some are not suitable for asthmatics or pregnant women, for example. All oils should be stored in a cool, dark place and kept no longer than one year. So please take expert advice, rather than using self-diagnosis, before using essential oils. Also make sure you use the pure, not cheaper diluted, oils.

A willing volunteer was asked for and Teresa Perrett braved the unknown and had a Hopi Ear Candle treatment. This left many in the audience somewhat in awe, but no longer sceptical, when they found out that it helps migraine, hay fever, sinus troubles, flying problems and many other ear, nose and throat ailments. Hopi candles were originally used by the Hopi Indians in Arizona. They are coated with St. John’s Wort, camomile, sage and bees wax. They work on a chimney effect, which draws out the impurities as they burn. They are painless and have no side effects, but get someone else to hold them for you!

Sue Bacon

Sue Bacon

During the breaks Anne Whitehead from BPW Chorley & South Ribble was offering reflexology sessions. Members at the National Conference in Harrogate this year will recall she was awarded the BPW June O’Dell Training Award to complete her training in this. Money put to very good use!

As well as all this, members also enjoyed the hospitality of the Novotel Hotel with an excellent Friday night informal dinner, entertainment at the Saturday night dinner was provided by Linda Poole, BPW Billiericay and Jackie Smith, BPW UK Action Director telling stories about Back to Back housing and the sense of community that existed, plus Nikki Bennett-Willetts regaling us with anecdotes about the differences between men and women. A group of ladies spent Sunday visiting Cadbury’s World as Chris Wilkie had confirmed chocolate is good for us!!

Sue Brown was delighted to present Pam Bellis with a very well deserved bottle of wine to thank her for organising such an excellent weekend.

The 2005 Annual National Conference weekend started early for the BPW delegates on Thursday 7th April at the Moat House Hotel in Harrogate, who displayed our BPW Banner with pride on a clear blustery day!

Sue Brown and the Board welcomed members to the official start of conference.

One of the high spots for the audience, as ever, was our Beatrice Gordon Holmes Keynote Speaker. Dressed in full police uniform, Chief Constable Della Cannings cuts a formidable figure. However the BPW conference delegates soon discovered the Chief Constable of North Yorkshire Police is a warm and approachable guest, with considerable charm and humour.

Joining the Devon & Exeter police force in 1975, Della entered an organisation which was uniformly white and male with only 4% of officers female. Although women still represent only 25% of the force. Della is aiming higher and in her latest local intake of recruits all but three were female...

Self-consciously confessing to being a role model for many women, Della spoke about her experience of managing a modern police force, and the organisational change necessary to keep up with the ever-changing nature of crime.

She is known to be a modernising Chief Constable with a passion for delivering contemporary solutions to the rapidly changing needs of communities in her vast North Yorkshire region. Crime statistics attest to Della's force's success. Burglaries are down by 41%, crime is down by 13%, 35% of crimes are detected compared to 20% before, arrest rates are up, road traffic accidents are down.

Della Cannings’ highly motivational lecture on positive organisational change struck a chord with incoming National President Ann Wiseall. In her vote of thanks, Ann made reference to Della's positive message that organisations must evolve to meet the changing nature of demands upon them. This is particularly pertinent to the Board of BPW, and to Ann personally, as she takes over BPW UK during a period of change designed to refresh and reinvigorate the organisation.

Chief Constable Della Cannings

What you eat makes you what you are? – Speaker Panel
BPW UK was delighted to welcome Alison Holden, Director of The Nutritional Healing Foundation and Norma Huddy, BPW National President ’93 - ’95 and Director of Policy Dimensions Ltd as our two panel speakers on health and healthy eating, very topical given the recent publicity given to the £280m of government support for Jamie Oliver and his campaign for good food in schools.

Armed with some illuminating statistics Alison Holden told members that her main aim for the afternoon was to send everyone away from the session with one good idea and a desire to change bad habits. A quarter of the UK population is clinically obese, with one in two people dying of heart disease and one in three dying of cancer. Alison charted the frightening rise in degenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s, arthritis and diabetes and suggested that our environment ‘breeds’ ill-health.

She talked about how self-sufficient the millions of cells in the human body are with the ability to create and repair themselves. Cells do not suddenly decide to ‘get cancer or heart disease’, this happens because humans have control over the environment in which the cells operate. Alison stressed how vital water was for energy, creativity and the ability to implement repair. Dehydration is now a major issue in the health debate.

She illustrated how important fats are to the diet as they help to create the membranes in cells which stop all the water just falling away, but she discussed the balance between good and bad fats and how to balance out the saturated with the unsaturated – reminding the audience of the value of oily fish, seeds and nuts to get those all important Omega 3’s that the body needs to feed the brain.

How can a person maximise fulfilment of everything in life if their body is not performing at top level. Alison closed her presentation with the rallying call – ‘A Happy Cell is a Happy You’ and ‘Drink 8 glasses of Water a day for a fortnight & you will feel the difference!’

Norma Huddy, in her role as Policy advisor to the Focus on Food Campaign, told the audience that whilst the national curriculum allows time for food to be studied, invariably it is the engineering and technology aspects of mass production that tends to be the focus of interest for both staff and pupils rather than the food itself.

The automation and the advance of ready prepared foods and meals has de-skilled a whole generation, as young people in schools no longer identify the origin and source of food; like the 10 year old who didn’t know chips and crisps are made from potatoes.

Focus on Food works with schools in England, Wales and Scotland via mobile kitchens in three sponsored buses. They spend four days at a school working with both teachers and pupils in groups of up to sixteen. The buses are equipped by health professionals, costing in the region of £125,000 and celebrity chefs like Gary Rhodes and Nigella Lawson give further profile and publicity. Topics covered are cooking, food hygiene and preparation, as well as nutrition – demonstrating that even something like pizza can be healthy if it is prepared in the right way and with good ingredients.

The thrust of the campaign is the opinion that food education should be compulsory for all. Currently primary school teachers get no time in the curriculum for training in food/cookery and teachers in secondary education are allowed ten hours per month. The lack of joined up government thinking where Health and Education blame each other for the problem merely exacerbates things.

A buzzing audience left the room for the afternoon tea break – as many headed for the water dispensers.

• Quality of life – including endometriosis
• Gynaecological cancers
• Pre-pregnancy and pregnancy problems
  

Liz’s personal involvement with WellBeing of Women really struck a chord with those present. Liz and her husband Colin had been told they would not be able to have children – Liz appeared at conference bouncing and full of health and energy and five months pregnant!

• Feeling good through keep fit, alternative therapies, losing weight, giving up smoking, healthy food options
• Looking good through hairstyles, make-up, right glasses, teeth and smiling (pampering yourself is fast becoming an essential luxury in today’s non-stop, busy world and people have really come to value the importance of splashing out on looking and feeling good
• Get physical – exercise such as running, aerobic workouts; more people are turning to gyms to sweat off the stress resulting from increased pressure at work; people now feel exercise if a better way of combating stress than any number of pills and potions
• Walking 10000 steps a day and you’ll stay slim and healthy. Power walking and the benefits that come with it. The technique of power walking provides a simple yet effective way of giving your whole body a thorough workout and is also believed to promote mental well-being as well as physical health

Gala Dinner
Tracy Lewis, accompanied by Budgie, was a really special speaker at the Gala Dinner on Friday of conference. Her speech certainly struck a chord with those present as she described quite passionately and emotionally the difference this special little dog has made to her life since he arrived.

Tracy, now aged 30, has been profoundly deaf since birth and in May 2002 her life changed completely owing to the arrival of a tiny mongrel Budgie – her hearing dog.

‘I have gained so much from him – when at home I can now relax and feel safe knowing that Budgie is there. I no longer feel isolated or worry that I am missing out on phone calls and visits. Out in the community, when shopping, Budgie has made people aware that I am deaf by wearing his hearing dog coat. I no longer get pushed aside when I have not realised that someone is wishing to get past. People will often stop now and chat to me about him, which has given me more confidence.

I am proud that Budgie and I will face life and all its challenges together. He is my best friend.’

Tracy and Budgie have done much together to raise awareness of Hearing Dogs for Deaf People. Tracy addressed members of the European Parliament to tell them about the difference her hearing dog has made to her life. She was then invited to meet Crown Prince Laurent of Belgium at a reception afterwards. Tracy coped magnificently.

In the last two years Tracy has been promoted at work, moved out of the parental home to live independently and has flourished and blossomed as a modern, independent and confident young woman. While much of this is as a result of her own determined character – a great deal of it can be attributed to a tiny hearing dog called Budgie.

BPW members enjoyed their Thursday night with Alice Ellis, one of the top salespersons for the Weekenders clothing range. Alice displayed her full range of versatile outfits with some very willing and able hand picked models. The session had to be extended by an hour because of the demand and level of interest shown. Needless to say Alice was so impressed by the organisation she became one of our newest members on the night!

BPW Midlands President Anne Eldridge, working in partnership with Rebecca Cadman-Jones of kcjones Conference & Events, set the highest possible standards when around 250 women attended the ‘Women in Business’ Conference at the East Midlands Conference Centre on 17th February. The East Midlands Development Agency and Business Link were among many other business delighted to sponsor this high profile event. Kate Lee, BPW Derby member was our compere for the day and did a very professional job introducing our speakers, making them feel at home and managing the audience participation.

Dame Anita Roddick, founder of The Body Shop was the headline speaker and true to form she was inspirational. The story of how the Body Shop evolved and where is it has taken her held the audience spell bound. She was determined to run the Body Shop with a difference and incorporated human rights into the companies Memorandum of Articles. This was unique at that time. Her honesty, high moral and ethical standards with a strong sense of humour and an excellent grasp on reality are the qualities that have put her at the pinnacle of our business leaders.

“Success comes from a boundless curiosity and being a pathological optimist”, said Dame Anita. “The future will not be female until there is equal representation in all walks of life, private business, public life, Parliament and child care”. So how do we make this happen? Dame Anita urged us all to validate the children and have a greater belief in ourselves. Become activists, look for ways to become involved, nuture ourselves. The beauty industry devours our self esteem by projecting impossible standards. The comment “There are 3 billion women who don’t look like supermodels and only 8 that do” resonated with the audience.

Dame Anita is now at a stage in her life that wealth makes it easy for her to take the time to travel and gain a greater understanding of the social responsibility that we all have. She calls travel ‘a university without walls’. The one thing she isn’t doing is taking life easy!

Dame Anita Roddick

Dame Anita Roddick

Perween Warsi started her multi-million pound food manufacturing business, S&A Foods, literally from her home kitchen supplying local take-aways with authentic Indian cuisine. She now supplies ready-made meals to UK supermarkets such as ASDA and exports to Europe, employing 800 people in Derby and has a turnover of around £70m a year.

Her strong passion to succeed has helped but she is also ruthless in her pursuit of a quality product and in ensuring all her staff feel involved with the company. “Respect costs nothing, but gains a lot” she said. Communicate, communicate, communicate is one of her values but this can be complicated especially when you have 26 different languages to do it in!! Her one key personal asset she defined as her people skills. That’s enabled her to build an expert team, gain the support of others and encourage openness and honesty across the company from shop floor to the managers.

Toyah Willcox (yes that is how she really spells her name, everyone else has got it wrong!) bounded onto the stage and urged us to learn the new skill of ‘bluffing’, which, she said, men have been calling leadership for centuries. She has used this skill all through her career as a ‘celebrity’ singer, actress and author. It would have been very easy to allow the issues that faced her, twisted spine, limp, speech impediment to become overwhelming but her refusal to these things be anything other than differences to be capitalized on has built her into to the woman she is today. Her advice is:

• Be super efficient
• Positive thinking is contagious
• Don’t be afraid to break taboos
• Defy expectations
• Know yourself and that you have a right to live your dreams
• And finally Network, Network, Network!

Perween Warsi

Toyah Willcox

A number of workshops were also held in between the keynote speakers.

Judi James, a leading expert in Body Language warned the audience that only 7% of what we say is communication, the rest is tone (38%) and non-verbal (55%) signs. Body leakage can deflect from our effectiveness, so we have to prepare to perform. Just being ourselves can be our biggest mistake.

The Business Update session included, Tina McEwen from Business Links talking about the training opportunities they could offer, Lin Hinson, Head of Employment Law from Smith Partnership solicitors discussed Diversity and the need to lobby for change, Karen Woodward outlined the Learning & Skills Council and how the Government had made a commitment that all adults should attain a Level 2 vocational qualification and Amanda Jefferies from Nelsons solicitors bought everyone up to date with the Disability Discrimination Act.

A Woman in a Man’s World gave the audience an opportunity to talk to 3 women who have been very successful in what is traditionally thought of as very male dominated careers. Hilary Barton of Rolls-Royce spoke highly of her employers progressive approach and her responsibility for the design, manufacture and testing of the front half of the A340 aircraft. Kathy Toon a Real Estate Lawyer in the Property and Construction industry, shared with the audience that although women represented 50% at the entry level for careers such as Surveyors only 11% remain, Quantity Surveyors are worse at 7% and Architects are 13%. This significant drop out rate has prompted the industry to set up an initiative called ‘Raising the Ratio – Architect for Change’ which is focusing on the 3 R’s – Responsibilities, Retention and Recruitment. Toyah Wilcox also joined us and shared with us some of her experiences from the world of entertainment.

And finally Mo Shapiro rounded the day off with a workshop for everyone on Emotional Fitness and how to gain it. ’Personal Power’ is the secret. The person with the most power over your life is yourself. She quoted Eleanor Roosevelt “no-one can make me feel inferior without my consent”. Let go of the ‘stoppers’ in your life and find your ‘starters’. If what you doing isn’t working then do something different. Celebrate success, focus on what works and hear the positive feedback.