Women’s International Networking 2006

The dust has settled on the WIN conference, my first WIN, set in the spectacular city of Rome where I ran a workshop offering a taste of ”Amazon Power”. See www.winconference.net for more information about WIN forums.

WIN short for Women’s International Networking is a gloriously female environment. The brainchild of Kristin Engwig, who defines herself as a social entrepreneur, beautiful with a kind of beauty that is unassuming, magical, and heart-felt. Kristin for me was the embodiment of a powerful, feminine leader who effortlessly created an eminently safe and inclusive environment in which the female spirit could flourish. A safe haven for women in male dominated companies such as IBM, HP, Proctor and Gamble, along with women from many other walks of life – entrepreneurs, coaches, and even quite a few creatives like myself.

The conference for me started long before. In the plane. I had made contact the night before with Eva, a coach, who thought she might be on the same flight as me. Describing herself as overweight and fifty-ish, I scanned the women waiting to board the flight. Now who I might approach? What is overweight for one woman is probably skinny for another. Eva did what any WIN woman would do, she broadcasted her presence over the plane tannoy. Almost immediately we became firm friends, pledging loyalty to each others workshops. 

The conference opened with music, an aria from a Puccini opera which brought the spirit of WIN in full focus and music abounded throughout. There were plenty of opportunities to celebrate feminine essence, and at my workshop in which I had brought an array of colourful fabrics by which my participants could personify their amazon, I was surprised by the alacrity with which the WIN women entered into the spirit of this. I spent more time than I had expected taking photographs of the various groups with their cameras. What is certain is that WIN women know how to have fun, as you will see in the photo above.

What moved me most was the way in which the two worlds of business and humane were brought under one roof. Our very attractive delegate bags were made in Vietnam. WIN did it very best to support third world interdependence. I was struck by the contribution of a Filipino wrap designer who was supporting women weavers who converted banana tree bark through a laborious process into woven fabrics, which could then be styled into a western fashion garments. Dita Sandicio Ong attended my workshop and gave me one of her wraps as a contribution to women attending my programmes. It was a gorgeously celebratory garment which when on resembled butterfly wings, and certainly would create a dramatic impact for any woman walking onto a plenary platform.

I was inspired too by the passionate speech of a young Indian woman, Rama Mani who was on her way to Sri Lanka on a peace making mission. Coming from the Tamil Nadu, how was she to win the trust of Sri Lankans who regarded all Tamils as their enemy? I had no doubt that her warm, inspiring presence and her vocational zeal would quickly win her supporters.

What characterises WIN women is an openness and a genuine desire to help, as evidenced in Anne Stevens generous contribution of her time to the Amazon Power mini tele-summit, fresh from her role at IBM as Director of Professional Development. Such generosity is the footprint of Kristin Engwig who is also speaking on the mini tele-summit.

I met many extraordinary women, and continue to meet more, as being at WIN gives a common language through which we can dialogue. Three days is not enough. I hope to keep the flame of WIN alive by taking another hour in the mini tele-summit. I hope you can join Kristin, Anne and I. All women welcome.

Free Mini Tele-Summit 11th December 2006

Amazon Power :

European Mini Tele-Summit

Speakers : Kristin Engvig (Director of Women’s International Networking Global Forum) and Anne Stevens (European Director of Professional Development, IBM Global Business Services)

How can we be as women authentically ourselves and powerful in our vulnerability?

Free conference call continuing the conversation of WIN in addressing the importance of developing a more globally accepting, understanding, feminine style leader able to implement the solutions that will bring about deep change in our world.  Claire Schrader, workshop leader of the Amazon Power workshop at WIN 2006, will be posing the questions to Anne Stevens and Kristin Engvig around how can we bring the best of what it is to be a woman in our professional and personal lives, with an opportunity for Mini Tele-Summit participants to contribute to the discussion.

December 11^th

10-11am (UK) 11am-12pm (Europe)

This sixty minute mini tele-summit will be exploring:

• What is femininity?

• Research indicates that when women lead from the feminine they make more potent business decisions. But what does it in reality mean to be an authentic, feminine leader? How can we be successful in our careers without sacrificing our feminine essence?

• How can we deal with and make our emotions work for us?

Kristin Engvig is a Norwegian social entrepreneur living in Switzerland. She founded W.I.N. in Milan in 1998 and is known for her innovative thinking and encouraging women to live creatively and shape their own future. She created the W.I.N. concept and designs the visionary programmes of all W.I.N. Forums. Her wide ranging career includes working in banking, PR, as an international consultant on inter-cultural management issues, marketing and communication studies. In 2006 she became finalist for the European Women of Achievement Award.

Anne Stevens was until very recently European Director of Professional Development, IBM Global Business Services. She has also played a major role as Co-chair of the Womens Leadership Council or IBM in Europe and been heavily involved in other Women’s groups such as WIN (Women’s International Networking), International Women of Excellence (IWE), European Women of Achievement (EWA) and European Professional Women’s Network (EPWN). She has an extensive background in the IT Services industry with a specific focus on people and culture, multi-national organisations, organisational change and transformation. Her particular passion, however, has always been the progression and advancement of women both in and outside of the workplace.

The Mini Tele-Summit is free and will take place over the telephone, enabling you to participate from anywhere in the world for the cost of a call to a UK number.

To register please send an email to online@makingmoves.net and you will receive confirmation of your participation and details of the conference call number and access codes. Please note that there is a limit to the number of participants who can be included on the call.

Hello world!

Welcome to movesblog. I have spent weeks reading and researching about blogs, telling my friends about them, most of whom have even less idea of what they are than I do – trying to get my mind around how they work. Since I mainly preach to my clients that the mind is not the most reliable source of knowledge, there’s only one thing for it to step into the unknown and experiences something new.

So here we go….

Claire

PS Haven’t got a feed yet this will come soon!