Pink Shoe Ladies who Lunch

After the success of Pink Shoe's summer lunch programme, the intimate Founder’s lunches are proving very popular so will continue throughout the season. With numbers kept at no more than 8-10, all guests are able to get to know each other in the smaller group. 



Recently we spent a lovely Friday lunch sharing tasting platters at the Adjournment in the House of Commons with a great mix of long standing ambassadors and some fabulous potential new members.

Pink Shoe Foundation Inaugural Meeting

The first meeting of the proposed Pink Shoe Foundation was held at Westminster. The charity will aim to encourage and support the lifelong development of women via a range of activities.

The first three Trustees are all founder members of the Club. Vanda Green, Úna McBride and Ling Tyler-Bennett, along with PSC founder Helene Martin Gee and Senate Chairman Jill Pay, have identified the first project to help fulfil the club's maxim of 'Creating Positive Footprints'.

PSF kicks off with a role model reinforcement project: ‘Take a Walk in My Shoes’. This is the Pink Shoe Shadowing Scheme for Women in Public life. It will involve a practical shadowing experience, with women wishing to contribute to public life shadowing those already in such a role, especially Ministerial Public Appointments. The shadowing is then supported by a series of workshops providing training and development for participants. The scheme will be launched at the House of Commons in November as part of PSF’s partnership with Parliament Week.

Splendours of the Commonwealth Fashion Show

Pink Shoe Club members were thrilled to be invited to launch London Fashion Week at the MayFair Hotel with Splendours of the Commonwealth Fashion Show in aid of the Commonwealth Countries League Education Fund.

The event was brilliantly organized by Judith Fisher and Sue Lawton and the clothes were stunning!.

PSC Patron Tessa Sanderson White CBE was guest of honour along with Baroness Boothroyd, Ade Adepitan and Baroness Flather amongst others.





The evening started with a wow when we received a rousing traditional Maori welcome! 

Fashion was from hugely talented young Commonwealth designers Shipra Malhotra, Ekta Solanki, Duchess, Kitty Ferriera,  Tina Lobondi, Sika, Sunita Mukhi and the grande finale from Jenny Packham. 

All shown with great panache by an array of models from throughout the Commonwealth and compered by Russel Amerasekera. 

The evening was a huge success with a party atmosphere and super service from the hotel team. 








As we enjoyed the Champagne guests perused the silent auction with a range of art works contributed by many of the schools in the programme.  

We heard first hand just how important is the work of CCLEF. It sponsors bright girls to give them equal opportunities for secondary education in their own countries. So far over 3000 girls, have been helped and currently 397 girls across 25 Commonwealth countries are being supported. 

Pink Shoe Summer Soirée

The Summer Soirée was held at the House of Commons by kind invitation of Loraine Midda, PSC founder member and Officer of the House. 



The event was hosted by Helene Martin Gee and Jill Pay, with a wonderful group of Pink Shoe members and friends. 

Special welcome was given to Guest of Honour HH Princess Shahnaz Husain, as well as greeting many old friends plus some new faces whom we shall hope to see again. 

A balmy summer evening was enlivened by guests attired in their glamorous summer clothes to enjoy prosecco, Kent pear juice and a lavish buffet of seasonal goodies.




We were treated to an enthralling talk from House of Commons Librarian Melanie Unwin and Archivist Mari Takayanagi on sufragette Emily Wilding Davison whose centenary was in June.

Melanie outlined the suffragette movement itself and the many activities that suffragettes undertook to fight for the right to vote. 

We learned about the different areas of Parliament linked with these valiant suffragettes and were each given a useful map to plot these for ourselves. 

Mari then gave us an insight into just how much was done in this cause, with some amusing anecdotes such as hiding in a Parliamentary broom cupboard for the night of the official Census, to the horrific treatment of the women in prison when being force fed. 

Guests were able to view displays of historic documents, and had the option of taking a tour of Parliament afterwards to visit all the places mentioned.

The party then continued far later than planned, with guests captivated by fabulous food and fizz along with the great company of other members and friends.

Helene thanked the excellent speakers Melanie and Mari, and all the lovely guests, especially Princess Shahnaz who most generously gave each guest a special gift bag of her wonderful Auyervedic beauty products to take home.

We are delighted to announce that Princess Shahnaz will be sharing tips of her inspirational success. HH has agreed to give a special talk on her hugely successful international business exclusively to Pink Shoe members this autumn. 

Commonwealth Business Council Debrief

Helene Martin Gee and Jill Pay represented Pink Shoe Club along with Sue Lawton, Global Advisor to WEConnect International, at a Debriefing on the Women’s Affairs Ministerial Meeting, following the Women in Business roundtable at the Commonwealth’s 10th Women’s Affairs Ministerial Meeting in Dhaka, Bangladesh this June.

The International Federation of Business and Professional Women (BPW International) and the British Association of Women Entrepreneurs (BAWE) are working together to create a roadmap for women’s economic empowerment which will be put to the Commonwealth summit meeting in Sri Lanka this November. 

The 3 key areas of focus, are i). women on boards and  executive positions; ii). women in trade and procurement; iii). women’s access to finance and skills.

A report has been published by the highly respected Dr Shaheena Janjuha-Jivraj of Henley Business School. 

Speakers included Nicky Morgan MP; Parliamentarian Rushanara Ali, and Arif Zaman, Adviser, South Asia and Corporate Governance and Chair of Commonwealth Businesswomen (CBW).

It was wholeheartedly agreed that women's economic empowerment is firmly on the

Commonwealth Ministerial agenda for the first time. 



As Nicky Morgan said ‘empowering women is a highly effective method of tackling deprivation and encouraging a strong economy’.

The Commonwealth theme for 2013 is Opportunity through Enterprise: unlocking potential with innovation and excellence. See:

http://www.commonwealththeme.org/2013/opportunity-through-enterprise/

Global Entrepreneurship Monitor at House of Lords

The All-Party Parliamentary Group for Entrepreneurship (APPGE) hosted the announcement of results from the GEM annual survey (2012) at the House of Lords. 

The event was well attended with delegates from academia, policy, the professions, third sector organisations, enterprise support and entrepreneurship, including Pink Shoe Club ambassadors.

GEM is the most comprehensive survey into entrepreneurship and data will also feed into the new Enterprise Research Council. APPGE Founder and Vice Chairman Lord Ahmed welcomed everyone to the meeting, which was skilfully Chaired by Professor Mark Hart.

Some highly interesting facts were revealed in the GEM study.  Of particular interest to Pink Shoe delegates, Mark Hart announced that the study shows ‘there is an increase in female entrepreneurship from 2010/2011’.

Delegates heard from Jonathan Levie about the generational effects of migration on TEA Rates in G7 countries. He told us: ‘those who have at least one immigrant parent are more likely to have higher ambition’ while inward migrants also have higher rates of entrepreneurship ‘you are more likely to be an entrepreneur if one or both parents are immigrants and are in business’.

Erkko Autio of GEDI explained how the entrepreneurial ecosystem supports start-ups. We also heard from leading entrepreneur Princess Shahnaz Husain about her inspiring passion for business and what an opportunity it offers. After an interactive Q&A there was networking over a light lunch.

Isabella and Quasim from Lord Ahmed’s office tweeted key points from the discussion.

Inspiring Enterprise in Manchester

Truly inspiring and exciting ideas came out of the four roundtable discussions of interprise:13 at Great John Street Hotel, Manchester. Our third 'Pop-Up' event in the city was again supported by Berg and was the first stage of interprise, which will be followed up in November during Global Entrepreneurship Week.

After introductions from PSC Founder Helene Martin Gee, the event opened with a captivating and informative talk from Sara McKee. Sara outlined her fascinating background working for major companies, including with highly successful entrepreneurs. She gave us excellent tips on running a business and reaching the top. Sara has often seen men are readier to take opportunities as they come, whereas sometimes women spend too long considering the situation ‘Don’t wait for the tiara to be put on your head!’

It’s often said women don’t put themselves forward unless they’re sure they have all the necessary requirements, while men will more likely take a chance.  Sara is confident to explore opportunities: ‘I’m the 70% woman! If I have that much of the ask I’m willing to give it a go – you can always learn the rest’

Then onto the debate, as women from the North West, London and further afield discussed four key questions on how we could help to inspire enterprise and ‘Take a Step Forward’ the theme of the 2013 Global Entrepreneurship Week.

How to provide a launch pad for more women to start the businesses of tomorrow

How we encourage successful women to back female entrepreneurs and invest in women-led businesses

How to inspire people over 50 into setting up a business

And finally, female representation on boards and in public life.

Each group was randomly allocated a question and after animated discussion within the four groups, each chairman brought conversation to a close as the group decided upon an idea to put forward to the whole audience. There was then a debate on the ideas, chaired by Jill Pay.




As the group chair presented each idea to the wider audience many excellent suggestions were made. These included a ‘talking heads’ road show for successful women entrepreneurs and business leaders to act as role models for other women and inspire more business start-ups. This to be both virtual via the internet and actual, to visit different regions.

Another idea was to create an interactive central hub where business owners and emerging entrepreneurs could collaborate and share resources and experiences, to support and encourage each other. With match funding for business ideas from those already in business.

Education was much discussed, with emphasis being upon bringing entrepreneurial thinking into the curriculum at a much earlier age. It was agreed to be key that knowledge is shared between generations. This was also explored by another group who suggested an Ideas Forum, everyone bringing something to the forum such two-way coaching and mentoring, seed corn or expansion funding. 

This Think & Do Tank was mirrored by the final group who put forward the idea of the ‘Give it a Go’ Foundation where businesses, Government and business people all work together to encourage and support start-ups and growing businesses. 



After a vote, it was clear the overwhelming majority voted ‘Give it a Go’ the winning idea. Although as Helene said many aspects were included in each conversation. Along with all the brilliant ideas from each discussion, outcomes will be published shortly.