January 28th – AGM 2010

AGM, a time to thank the past board members for their engagement and to elect the members to continue through 2010 – but equally important a time to reflect on goals achieved and visions for the future.

Past President Susanne Forsman-Hey gave the attendees a professional speech as always starting out by congratulating the Network on reaching 100 members, having held 24 well-attended events in 11 months and being the proud host of the European AGM with 25 out-of-town guests over 3 days.

Furthermore the Network had a good web presence and event advertising through 2009, important partnerships ‘in kind’ with Team Cote d’Azur and CERAM (now SKEMA), growth of the Mentoring programme and not least – the celebration of the EueopeanPWN-Nice Cote d’Azur 10th year anniversary.

Susanne has recently been elected Treasurer on the EuropeanPWN Federation Board and we proudly congratulate her !

Julia Haston presented the Treasurer’s report, Ines O’Donovan the Mentoring report and Sophie le Brozec the results of the Event survey.

The Board members for the EuropeanPWN Cote d’Azur 2010 were elected unanimously: Julia Haston as President, Dorothy Foster as Vice President, Melanie Gulliver as Treasurer, Ines O’Donovan as Mentoring Programme Leader and Charlotte Richter-Mikkelsen as both Secretary and Event Manager.

Here you can find the LINK to BOARD MEMBERS page

March 8th – International Women’s Day

About 50 women met up for a cocktail to celebrate the 100th International Women’s Day. It was an opportunity to meet the new board, enjoy a good chat around a class of wine and not least to reflect on the great women who have inspired or continue to inspire us in our lifes.

Honorary member, Christine Lagarde (currently the French Minister for the Economy, Industry and Employment) was in Nice for the day and would have dropped in had we held our event in Nice. She sent this letter (click here for French, click here for English) which Julia Haston, President, read out.

Members were then invited to share a few words with everyone about women who had inspired them. Many women were evocated such as :

• Marylin French, who wrote « Women’s Room » in the 60ies which is still very relevant

• Coco Chanel, who allowed women to wear the clothes they felt good in

• Margaret Thatcher, who was an iron lady, whereas we women often are too flexible

• Elena Roosevelt who said « Nobody can make you feel more inferior than what you consent »

• « Clayborn » : fashion industry in the States, who allow Mexican women workers to work on the same level as others in the firm

• Annie Lennox, the great singer from Eurythmics

• Rosa Parks, the black woman who refused to stand up in the bus for white people and opened the way to fight against rascism with Martin Luther King

• Margaret Mead who was the teacher of one of the members and in general, the famous women who open doors to others

• Helena Kennedy, a great scottish feminist

• « My mum, because she always tells me – you can do it ! »

• J.D. Rowlings, the author of Harry Potter

• « My grand-mother, because she emigrated to Australia with her 4 kids as a widow and made a great life for the whole family and has alwas been a source of inspiration for me »

• Jill Fielding from the British TV serie « the secret millionnaire »

• Alice Schwarzer, a great German feminist, who fought for women’s financial independence

Deborah d’Alessandro finished the session by saying that women will very soon be a larger economic strength than India and China combined!

Then, Anna Fill, from the Riviera Woman, offered a chocolate cake that was shared amongst all the guests.

March 28th – Image and Lifestyle Workshop

Makeup expert Coral Clark and top stylist Katie Holmes spoke about the art of looking great and feeling great with less stress.

In fact ‘less is more’ was the theme of the evening, as Coral presented an easy to apply and low maintenance makeup look that gave her top model and EuropeanPWN guest Veronique Pfeffer a healthy and glowing look for her photoshoot. Coral focused on applying a minimum of makeup whilst talking up the importance of avoiding direct sunshine on the face and drinking plenty of water.

Treasurer for the EuropeanPWN Federation, Susanne Forsman-Hey noted; “It was particularly refreshing and inspiring hearing Coral stress the point about the interrelation between the physical look and the mental well being. I really liked her story about the people who used the ‘exterior’ boost to succeed in their job search.”

Katie also stressed the value of having five or six key items in our wardrobe that can be mixed and matched and accessorized to provide many different looks, rather than filling the cupboards with cloths we never wear. Being organized and not over complicating what we wear is the way to looking stylish, feeling confident and giving a positive image of who we are.