PINK SHOE DIARY BLOG: 2017

Ambassadors' Christmas Luncheons

This year for the first time we held Christmas luncheons to complement the seasonal soirée that members know and love. A great way of meeting up with friends in the more intimate setting of our private room. The company was brilliant, and we stayed far longer that the scheduled 2-hours.

Service was top notch and the chefs excelled with a deliciously modern take on turkey with all the trimmings or tasty veggie options along with yummy puddings, coffee and chocolates.

Winter Soirée

To round off the year in true Pink Shoe style, Ambassadors and guests had a wonderful time at the Winter Soiree, held on the shortest day of the year.

As ever it was a superb celebration of the season. Guests enjoyed fizz and the usual sumptuous buffet then the evening ended with mulled wine and mince pies for great send-off to the festivities.

Public Appointments Action Plan

With increasing recognition of the value that diverse talent brings to an organisation, Government launched its Public Appointments Diversity Action Plan at the National Portrait Gallery.

The plan is supported by the Prime Minister who is committed to working with her Cabinet to increase the breadth of talent within public bodies.

We heard from Chris Skidmore, Minister for the Constitution at the Cabinet Office, about the proactive steps Government is taking to deliver on its ambitious Action Plan to increase the talent pipeline and attract the brightest and best.

Global Banking Alliance for Women Summit

It was an honour to co-host the international GBA Summit at the Houses of Parliament and its CEO Inez Murray, with almost 200 delegates from 50 different nations attending the annual event.

Supported by NatWest and hosted by the All-Party Parliamentary group for Women & Enterprise, Pink Shoe Founder Helene Martin Gee joined a prestigous panel chaired by Jill Pay, along with Julie Baker from NatWest, Karen Matthiason of the World Bank, keynote speaker Baroness Burt and Craig Tracey MP.

Global Entrepreneurship Week - Launch of Pink Sky Academy

An exciting event heralded our GEW2017 event with the launch of the Pink Sky Academy.

Patron Deborah Leary OBE and Pink Shoe founder Helene Martin Gee chaired the roundtable along with our host The Earl of Erroll.

With a streamlined focus on the issues that really matter, the Pink Sky Academy provides unique and practical enterprise and entrepreneurship help and advice for women business owners and entrepreneurs.

Based on our successful pilot during the year, these are not academic lectures but interactive peer-to-peer sessions that enable a co-learning environment and create a trusted peer group for successful and growing businesses seeking to scale-up.

During the evening we gathered excellent ideas and input from our roundtable of experts and look forward to delivering the rolling programme of seminars from January 2018.

Parliament Week 2017

As longstanding Parliament Week partners this year's event focused on the exciting Pink Shoe Time Capsule as members were invited to add their message to the future. Before moving to a commitee room some of the group gathered in Westminster Hall on a green bench!

The Earl of Erroll opened the roundtable by sharing something of his work in the House of Lords, telling us about the work of commitees and his own work on digital technology and internet safeety.

Lord Erroll explained that the House of Lords is a revising chamber and gave us an insight into the passage of a bill - the steps a proposal for a new law takes until it gains Royal Assent.

#FQ4 Pink Shoe International Forum

The 4th International Forum #FQ4 took place at the Shard in October in partnership with The Enterprise Research Centre and Addidi.

#FQ4 Pink Shoe International Forum Part II

Beanstalk Jack's Club Luncheon

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#PinkShoe10 Time Capsule Launch at The Speaker's House

Hosted by our founder and president Helene Martin Gee and by special premission of Mr Speaker, The Rt Hon John Bercow MP, Pink Shoe Ambassadors gathered at the glorious State Rooms of The Speaker's House to celebrate the 10th Anniversary of Pink Shoe and unveil our special legacy project.

Helene announced that to commemorate our 10^th Anniversary, Pink Shoe is creating a TIME CAPSULE highlighting the progress women have made through history and celebrating the cross cultural, cross sectoral nature of the network.It is linked to the centenary in 2018 of the first women in the UK getting the vote.

Celebrating '100 years of Women's Voices' this multi-media Time Capsule will pay tribute to women’s accomplishments, aims and aspirations. It will be a virtual, online space to celebrate, inspire and commemorate as well as we hope a physical vessel.

Accessible to people of all cultures, ages and abilities, it will bring together films, photographs, artwork, crafts, poems, songs, mementoes, texts, tweets, social media and audio messages.

During the event leading Pink Shoe Ambasadors shared their messages for future women, these included Antonella Ragona (whose idea the Time Capsule is) Jill Pay, Diana Chrouch, Noreen Cesareo and Sheila Williamson.

Helene read messages form our Patrons and other leading Ambassadors, then Melanie Unwin, Curator at the Palace of Westminster, told us all about the Vote100 project celebrating the 2018 centenary and some of the exciting events taking place in Parlaiment and across the country.

The voices of women are truly being heard!

#PinkShoe10 Champagne Reception

Following the launch of the Pink Shoe Time Capsule the event moved across to the main Palace for a reception and celebratory fizz.

Everyone was able to enjoy an amazing presentation put together by Antonella Ragona and Noreen Cesareo, on screens which highlighted 10 amazing years of Pink Shoe interspersed with positive messages from our Patrons and from other female leaders.

The evening was enjoyed by all and a lovely gift from generous Pink Shoe Ambassadors of beautiful flowers, pink Champagne and a stunning Swarovski pink crystal pen completely delighted and surprised Helene!

Lunch & Learn: Digital and Data

At DMH Stallard we held the last in the current series of Lunch & Learn seminars 'Digital & Data'. Once more the event was generously supported by DMH.

After introductions from our host Olivia Cooper and Pink Shoe's Helene Martin Gee, Andy Mullholland, Vice President and Principal Analyst at Constellation and a real IT guru led the session brilliantly.

Andy covered topics including digital business models and cloud business as well as how to leverage social media and analytics to achieve business objectives and deliver client satisfaction.

Deftly chaired by Lan O' Connor, Andy's approach made the subject both fascinating and engaging and no question was too mundane!

Delegates left brimming with knowledge and many new ideas and insights.

Lunch on the Terrace

A delightful afternoon was spent in the Terrace Pavilion as we enjoyed a special summer luncheon. The House of Commons team excelled themselves with the glorious buffet as the food was better than ever this year!

Around the table we discussed business opportunities, the challenges of setting up a new business and progress on the UK Economic Blueprint for Women, along with summer plans and holiday destinations.

A wonderfully relaxing occasion - wish we could enjoy it more often!

Summer President's Luncheon

The second of our exctiing lunches in a private dining room overlooking the river enabled Pink Shoe Ambassadors to share a superb menu and wines whilst dicussing plans for our forthcoming 10th celebrations and legacy project.

The secret was revealed by founder Helene to those present, but will be kept under wraps until September for our special guests at the anniversary event. Watch this space!

Summer Soiree with Guest of Honour Tessa Sanderson

To celebrate summer we held a Westminster safari party to support our inspiring Patron Tessa Sanderson CBE and her charity, the Tessa Sandersom Foundation.

Beginning in the prestigious surroundings of the River Room for a champagne reception by kind permission of the Lord Speaker.

We heard from our fabulous founder Helene Martin Gee of the exciting progress made by Pink Shoe over the past 10 years.

Tessa then wowed guests with her personal success story of how she got to the Olympics and her gold medal.

Now Tessa is working with young athletes seeking their own medal success. Members were keen to hear more and we hope this event will inspire them to get involved with TSFA and the many young people it supports.

From the River Room we enjoyed a mini-tour of Parliament enroute to the House of Commons for a delightful buffet reception and plenty more fizz!