From the President’s Keyboard

The French weekly magazine Le Point had a pretty good point in its’ April 30th edition focusing on women’s networks. Based on interviews with Fondation Sophia Antipolis, Femmes3000, Côte d’Azur Pionnieres, and EuropeanPWN, the ‘red thread’ was the role of these associations in fostering collaboration, helping women emerge from (professional) isolation, and supporting others in their endeavors. Consequently, I have had a number of mails from readers interested in the benefits of a professional network, citing that their sleek CVs are not enough: they need the support and contacts of an established network as job markets are getting tougher.

As a reason for joining the network, this resonates with what the Board usually hears. Yet, it is important that we continue to be alert to how needs and interests of our Network members (you!) change. We were impressed with the amount of responses to our recent survey on event preferences – thank you! – and were hence supported in the strategy that a certain (but not extensive) diversification in event location and price point is the way to go. So look out for more events outside Sophia Antipolis, also offering more ‘simple’ networking gatherings.

One additional meeting location is Monaco – in fact the 2009 Board has a goal to re-invigorate our activities in this important area. With 2 Board members working in the Principality we are well positioned to do so. If you have contacts in Monaco, or have the occasion to participate, we warmly welcome you at our events here!

Over the past year, the Board has been working to establish a series of Special Interest Groups (SIGs), and can now propose regular meetings on the topics of: Elevator Pitching; Goal Setting; and of course Mentoring. And surely: if you wish to start another SIG, do not hesitate to speak up!

Finally, you have probably noticed that we have upped the number of events from one to as much as 4 per month. This is thanks, mostly, to an incredible drive and enthusiasm of the Board members, and I hope that you will find the time to attend one or several of the upcoming events.

Upcoming events

See full description and registration details on the Calendar.

June 4th from 19:00 – 22:00 in St Laurent du Var
Come and join Deborah D’Alessandro and Julia Haston for a pitching
dinner at the Dame Nature restaurant. You will have the chance to go over the basics of good Elevator Pitches, practice or discuss your elevator pitch and get feedback from peers.

June 11th from 19:00-22:00 in Sophia Antipolis
A fantastic opportunity to learn how to create your value proposition (or your business’s) with the guidance of Ricky Coussins, a marketing professional with 35 years experience of advising major global companies (such as IBM, BT, Nokia, Intel and Amadeus), as well as SME businesses and self employed.

June 25th from 19:00 in Nice
Help us give a warm welcome to the presidents of all the EuropeanPWN city networks who are gathering in Nice for the 2009 AGM on June 25-27th. We are planning on a glam summer night with networking and socializing. The Lido Plage in Nice will be the venue for our Nuits Blanches soirée – venez nombreux!!!

June 27th from 10:00 to 13:00, in Novotel CAP 3000
This workshop explores why different people with exactly the same information and in exactly the same circumstances will choose to behave differently. This Myers Briggs Type workshop is led by Marion Furr who is a chartered business psychologist and strategic Organisation Design consultant with over 30 years experience. Note that seats are very limited, and preparation is required, so please register before June 10th.

July 9th from 18:00 to 21:00 at the UBS offices in Monaco
Ken Pope

Recap of recent Events

Over the last four months we’ve held a number of events:


February 3rd – Pitching Lunch, Le Bois Doré, Valbonne

February 19th – How Green is your Business?, Mercure, Sophia Antipolis

March 11th – Women the Antidote to the Financial Crisis?, CERAM, Sophia Antipolis

March 26th – Dealing with Emotions and Giving Feedback, Mercure, Sophia Antipolis

April 2nd – Pitching Lunch, DRAKKAR, Sophia Antipolis

April 7th – There is only ONE First Impression, Mercure, Sophia Antipolis

April 21st – Introduction to the EuropeanPWN, UBS, Monaco

April 28th – Making the Most of the Network, DRAKKAR, Sophia Antipolis

May 16th – Introduction to Mentoring, Nice


A short write up of most of the events can be found here

Members’ testimonials: Patti-Ann McNeill

I joined the EuropeanPWN while working in a rather uninspiring profession. I felt that I was “stuck” with my work and not making the progress I would like or putting my skills to best use.

The organisation helped me meet a lot of new, like-minded people, and I started to imagine making changes to my working life. The mentoring programme helped me put those changes into effect and with Julia Haston’s help (one of the Mentoring Angels), I am now on the way to a new, more rewarding and challenging career.

The EuropeanPWN events are varied, stimulating and fun, and there is always time to network and make new friends. Well done to all those who contribute their time and experience in order to make this such a successful organisation.

New member: Adina Grigoriu

Currently head of asset allocation at EDHEC Investment Research, Adina advises asset managers on designing and managing multi-asset portfolios, including hedge funds. She has an actuarial degree and extensive experience in different finance fields, quantitative modelling being one of them. She is of Romanian origin and started her career as a derivatives trader. She then joined a multinational asset management company where she held several positions ranging from product manager to fund manager and head of ALM.

Mentoring

The Mentoring programme has become very popular with our mentors and mentees. They tell us that they enjoyed the three workshops held since last autumn, as well as the opportunity to develop and practice their own mentoring skills while giving or getting help in a topic that is close to their heart.

“Being a mentee, and for the first time in a mentoring relationship, I appreciated most to hear an objective opinion and to receive brilliant ideas from my mentor, which either confirmed my business strategies or led to an improvement in special areas.” (Elisabeth Lielacher)

Through popular demand, we held an additional information session on 16 May. We’ll try to find a match for our 7 new mentees during the next couple of weeks. If you’re interested in becoming a mentor or mentee please contact mentoring@europeanpwn-nice.net.

Our next information session will be held in September, and the next mentoring skills workshop will be held in October.

SIG: Elevator Pitching

Following the Elevator Pitch workshop in September and a Pitching Lunch in February, we’re holding a Pitching Dinner on Thursday June 4th at the Dame Nature restaurant in St. Laurent du Var. This is a great opportunity to come and practice your pitch in a supportive environment and get feedback from peers.

Virgin Atlantic have recently announced a competition for inflight entertainment entrepreneur.virgin.com – so who’s going to be the first to submit a video of their pitch :-)

The latest book in the Women @ Work series, published by EuropeanPWN, Ariadne’s web, includes a chapter on Elevator Pitches.

The Elevator Pitch workshop took inspiration from a paper by Chris O’Leary. Chris has now published a book Elevator Pitch Essentials. We highly recommend it.

Both these books are available from Amazon.

EuropeanPWN Nice in the News

Dawn Howard, a London-born journalist living in Roquefort-les-Pins interviewed Julia Haston, also from Roquefort. The article can be viewed on the Roquefort Informer website.

The website includes lots of useful information about the village of Roquefort-les-Pins and includes a section on “Days Out” that provides interesting articles on things to do in the area – and hence of interest to a wide audience

The April 30th edition of Le Point features an article on women and networking on the Côte d’Azur . Julia and Susanne were interviewed, alongside women from Femmes 3000 and Côte d’Azur Pionnières. The article can be viewed here.

From the European Arena

We are busy planning the European AGM for the Network to be held in Nice June 25-27th. It looks like all 18 city networks will be present (a record!) along with the European Board. Thanks to past Nice board member Evelyne Henriet, we’ll be hosted in the great meeting facilities at Team Côte d’Azur, the Investment agency.

The President of EuropeanPWN in Madrid, Marijo Boos, has created a fantastic value-add for us all in developing a sponsorship programme with her local business school Endessa (IE). They will sponsor up to 75% of a number of MBA scholarships for EuropeanPWN members across all networks, totaling approximately €50.000 per year, for two years. Eligibility is to be decided by a jury from IE (academic criteria) and EuropeanPWN (membership tenure and participation). Please contact Susanne Forsman-Hey for further details.

Special offers for members

Christine Sweeney, who held the highly appreciated workshop ‘First Impressions’ in April has kindly agreed to extend a discount to our members. For individual consultations she normally charges €50 per hour (min. 2 hours sessions) but will give 10% discount when one person signs up, 20% for 2 people and 30% for 3 people. Please contact Christine Sweeney directly for a quote.