Celebrated
artists, politicians, performers, community workers and LGBT activists will offer
insights into contemporary gender issues in this unique symposium hosted by London's October Gallery Education on 24th March.
Taking Palestinian artist Laila Shawa’s Disposable Bodies No.3 as a trigger, the symposium offers a layering of narratives to create a collective portrait of women today. How conflicted will these multiple perspectives be? Do we really need a Women’s History Month anyway?

The Next Women is organizing it's next Pitch Event on February 24, 2012 in Amsterdam in the beautiful Elicium (photo).The pitch events are designed to improve access to financial and professional networks for women entrepreneurs and to enhance and accelerate a faster growth of their business.Therefore, The Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs, Agriculture and Innovation supports this upcoming pitch event, because female entrepreneurs are a potential for growth.
Following
a year in which “people power” was the rallying cry from the Arab Spring to
Occupy Wall Street, the World Economic Forum (WEF) Annual Meeting 2012 in Davos,
which ended last Sunday, might seem like an elitist anachronism, but it is
worth noting how the WEF over the past few years has tried in earnest to
include voices from civil society as well as younger generations – from new,
very active communities within the WEF such as the Young Global Leaders and the
Global Shapers to – this year – even Occupy Davos.
The result: As a “platform for multi-stakeholder dialogue between business, society, and politics” (in the words of WEF founder and executive chairman Professor Klaus Schwab), the WEF is more relevant than ever (full disclosure: I am a member of the WEF Global Agenda Council on Values in Decision-Making).
That said, the Annual Meeting in the luxurious Swiss ski resort remains the “the world’s most exclusive gathering,” and it is hard not to be star-struck by a cast that this year included the likes of Bill Gates, Timothy Geithner, Christine Lagarde, David Cameron, Angela Merkel, the CEOs of most Fortune 500 companies, our very own Doreen Lorenzo, the president of frog, and – yes – Mick Jagger.
The NextWomen invite you to a Pitch
Afternoon with Investors, aiming to support women-led businesses
prepare and practice their investment pitches with a real panel of investors.
The Pitch Events are highly anticipated and appreciated events, held regularly at the request of our readers since the The
NextWomen began at the end of 2008.
The
UK’s largest independent membership network for women in business, everywoman, is inviting entries for the 2012
Specsavers everywoman in Retail Awards.
Now in their fifth year, these awards recognise the achievements of women in the retail sector, with categories including "Entrepreneur of the Year" and "Woman of the Year". Keep reading for details of last year's winners in these categories.
By highlighting inspirational female role models who are excelling, the awards aim to demonstrate to other talented individuals the exceptional opportunities offered by a career in retail.
On the initiative of the HVB Women's Council,
HypoVereinsbank has launched a mentoring programme: experienced
businesswomen support selected women start-up entrepreneurs on
the road to founding their own company.
Eligible candidates are invited to apply for one of six mentoring places by submitting their idea and business plan or concept. The winners will be selected by a distinguished jury. The deciding factors will be the quality of the business plan or concept and the start-up idea itself. Amongst the mentors is DLD Co-Founder Steffi Czerny.
The
UK’s largest female business community, everywoman, has announced the
2012 finalists in the everywoman in Technology Awards, once
again uncovering the UK’s most successful and talented
women working within the technology sector. And our own founder Simone Brummelhuis of The NextWomen is again part of the jury.
These
awards, now in their second year, highlight the achievements of women excelling
in this industry, in order to encourage more to see it as a rewarding career
choice.
Despite increases in the number of women entering the workforce over the past few decades, recent figures show that the number employed within the IT and telecoms sector has decreased. Although 47% of the UK workforce is female, only 18% of IT & Telecoms professionals are female, down from 22% in 2001*.
The search to find
Britain’s most pioneering women has begun with the launch of the 2012 First
Women Awards.
The First Women Awards celebrate trailblazing women from the business, entrepreneurial, manufacturing, science & technology, and media sectors who are leading the way for the next generation. The awards were created by Real Business and the CBI, and are held in association with Lloyds Banking Group.
Arianna Huffington received the Aenne Burda Award, which recognizes
visionary female entrepreneurs, at the international digital conference DLD in
Munich last week.
Huffington, the founder and editor-in-chief of the AOL Huffington Post Media Group, tweeted her excitement at receiving the award . It was presented by Dr. Maria Furtwängler-Burda, who praised Huffington as an example of female empowerment. She said,
"Arianna Huffington experienced backstrokes and was never deterred by them –- her fearlessness is a stimulus for women, to get active themselves."
Some 500 people packed the theatre on a recent Monday evening at the
Business Leaders Network (BLN) event
showcasing Eric Ries, Silicon Valley entrepreneur and author of The Lean
Startup. (Well done BLN, and especially Mark
Littlewood, who hosted the proceedings and ran the Q&A with aplomb
and humour.)
This and numerous other packed TLS events in the preceding week in Ireland and the UK showed that Ries’s fame preceded him, even drawing attendees from continential Europe.
Much has already been written and said online about the Lean Startup method, and the book is so widely available that I don’t think I need to give a thorough synopsis here. Ries also has the occasional detractor who says that the method is not novel, not really ‘scientific’ as claimed, not workable beyond digital industries, and that it risks creating teams who will iterate to infinity and never figure out what to build.







