Conference 2007
Photographs supplied by Black Tie Portraits
The Headlines
The 2007 Key Note Speaker for the Gordon Holmes Memorial Lecture, in honour of the Found President of BPW in the UK, was truly inspirational. Given the current state of unrest and warfare around the world, Sister Isabel Smyth was the voice of hope and integration applying her values of Compassion, Wisdom, Integrity and Justice to the inter faith work she leads.
However this was not a talk about religion – instead it told of one woman’s journey to understanding and respecting diversity from a narrow background of Catholicism. She was inspired by Stella Reekie whom she met on returning to Glasgow to teach RE and world religion, after attending university in Lancaster. She then used her networking skills at all levels of society to build a vision of hope and commitment.
Sister Isabel is a founding director and CEO of the Scottish Inter Faith Council. She has served on the executive committee of the inter Faith Network of the UK and is the Catholic Bishops Associate Secretary for Inter Faith Relations to name just a few of her many roles. Other calls on her time include the Annual Women’s Conference which recently saw Muslim and Jewish women working together to make a meal for 100 people, attended by men, including leaders of both faiths eating together.
Sister Isabel so inspired our BPW European Co-ordinator, Gabriella Canonica that she asked Isabel to join her BPW International task force looking at ‘Peace not War’.
The start of something special … Young BPW UK Pilot Projects!
Members of Young BPW UK (open automatically to all members under 35), outlined 3 key pilot projects they are undertaking across the UK.
| In London Lynette Ametewee is focussing on events and partnerships with other organisations such as the
Womens National Council and has planned two events, a panel discussion looking at the Elimination of All Forms of
Discrimination Against Women and another on Leadership and Career Development. |
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| In Northern Ireland, Natasha Monroe is targeting the student and lecturer population, putting posters and flyers on
campus and attending career fairs to bring the benefits of BPW to them and encourage their involvement. |
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| In Nottingham, Samantha Raggatt is looking at the young civil service and government specifically the Regional
Development Agencies and local government bodies specifically their intranets, websites and links. |
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This ‘Dream Team’ intend to go to their first European event in Berlin during September
and BPW members were delighted to offer funds to help them achieve this.
TWO SPECIAL AWARDS FOR TWO SPECIAL WOMEN
Ann Swain, BPW UK Past National President (1991-93) received a special plaque from Gabriella Canonica for all her input on the Executive Board of BPW International and for running the BPW International Office in Horsham.
Sylvia Perry, BPW UK National President 1989 to 1991 and BPW International President 1996 – 1999 also received a special award from Susan Jones, Chair of BPW International Project Task Force. Sylvia has an international reputation as a tireless campaigner raising awareness of women’s issues. As well as her roles in BPW, including active involvement in her local club of Bristol, she has worked with organisations such as UNIFEM and, currently, is Financial Director of the Arab International Women’s Forum. Sylvia has just written and published her latest book “Empowering Women Worldwide - The History of Project Five O” which went on sale in the UK at this conference.
Independent Women – Financial Advice for Women
Kate Philip, Managing Director of Independent Women, and following Conference a BPW member, told us all about the need for controls in our lives and how financial control is prime. The good news is that women are becoming wealthier than before and by 2025 we are expected to own 65% of the nations wealth! Of millionaires aged between 18 and 44 there are now 24% more women then men! And around 2.4 million British women have liquid assets of more than £25,000.
Many aspects of a woman’s life are changing. More women are taking the financial decisions, either jointly or alone. The structure of the family unit is changing with more single families and divorce rates increasing. Women are more risk aware with 33% knowing their bank balances to the nearest £1 and only 16% of men able to do so. However the major area of concern is pensions and the lack of provision women are making for themselves and their future. All of us need to look at our finances though all stages of our lives. Whether in education, starting a job and settling into an income, working through building a family with all the heavy commitments that brings, returning to work after children, planning retirement and even retirement itself, there is always something that can be changed to improve the financial position.
Kate shared with us some real examples of women who they had helped and the advice reverberated with many in the audience. Interestingly in this day and age financial advice is still a very male dominated area with only 8% of independent financial advisors being women. However with more and more women returning to work and starting their own businesses they want dedicated female advice. Independent Women itself was founded in 1992 by Lesley Collins, who recognised the gap in the market and wanted to instil financial awareness in and give training for women.
International Sessions
Nikki Bennett -Willetts introduced the International session this year with a reminder for everyone of the high regard in which BPW UK is held. BPW UK was one of the seven Founding Federations of BPW International and is specifically mentioned each year in the International Candlelighting Ceremony. She said she was proud to give a presentation at the Individual Personal Development Training Weekend held by BPW USA, in New York on ‘Raising the Profile of BPW International in the UK’ and reminded us of all the work undertaken and activities coming up. Young BPW <link to Young BPW page> has its first conference in Korea in the summer 2007 and in October 2008 there is the BPW International Congress in Merida, Mexico. <link to BPW International page> Members, introducing ten or more new members to BPW, who register for Congress are eligible to enter a prize draw to win their air fare to Mexico. BPW UK members were delighted to start fundraising to sponsor for Young BPW members who would like to go to Korea.
BPW UK was delighted to have Gabriella Canonica, BPW European Regional Co-ordinator and Susan Jones, Chair of BPW International Projects Taskforce as Keynote Speakers. As well as her own business and family commitments in Switzerland, Gabriella has worked hard over the last 18 months on BPW, and is particularly pleased at the growth of Young BPW throughout Europe and the revival of BPW France. The updated BPW European website has been very successful <link to BPW Europe>, particularly the benefits of networking, exchanging information and finding contacts. Many members have put their details on the website, the BPW UK Marketing Director, Leandre Monroe being one of them, thus demonstrating the power of networking on an International level.
Susan Jones has her own business in Australia but still finds time for all her family commitments and BPW. As Chair of BPW International Projects, Susan takes a keen interest in all initiatives that the international affiliates undertake. Although they are all on the BPW International website, she shared with us just a few highlights. Business training in Russia; micro-credit facilities in Nepal, enabling women to buy chickens to get the first step on the economic ladder and, finally making artificial flowers out of fish scales in prison in Thailand - she showed us one of the beautiful flowers.
Susan also told us about work being undertaken as part of Project Five-O. This started in 1980 with BPW International, International Council of Women, International Federation of University Women, Soroptimist International and Associated Country Women of the World (the last to be replaced by Zonta International after a few years) all joining together to further vocational training among girls and young women. Sylvia Perry, BPW UK has just written a book about the history of this collaboration. The project for a training school for nurses in La Paz, Mexico has been mainly supported financially and managed by BPW. So far it has trained over 600 nurses and they now need more funds for the next stage, an auditorium.
All Conference sessions evoked many questions and were certainly interactive.
Members making their contribution
Gala Dinner Speaker – Erick Rainey was born in New Orleans USA but has travelled the world. He has worked in the theatre, movies, TV, performed for the Royal Opera and the Royal Ballet, even swinging on the high trapeze in the Millennium Dome! He is the International Speech Champion of the UK & Ireland and came third in the World Championships of Public Speaking out of some 28,000 entrants. Eric, whose business is “Rain Works”, was truly an inspirational speaker and has a slogan of ‘watering the seeds of your success’. The audience came away enthralled and inspired to enhance their skills, to know what they want, to develop and innovate new strategies and methods to achieve their goals.
Members showcases – promoting our members businesses
Malt Whisky evening – getting in the spirit
To water or not to water was the subject of some debate on the opening evening of conference. Laura Hay from the Scotch Malt Whisky Society enlightened members about a number of things like the malting process, the effect peat firing has on the whisky taste, the mash tun and leftovers being fed to the cows - happy cows! The difference between Scotch and Irish whisky, why it needs to be matured in oak casks and how it cannot be called Scotch until it’s been the cask for 3 years and 1 day. All this before moving onto the sampling, and what a delight that was ! Laura had picked 3 gems for the audience to try. One from the Lowlands, Bladnoch, pale in colour with a hint of vanilla and apples; the second from Strathisla, the oldest distillery in Speyside, which tasted of burnt caramel, plum and fruit with a slight liquorice aftertaste and the final one from Bowmore, darker then the others, smokey and woody in flavour. A great start to Conference.
Social aspects of Conference
