President’s blog Sept 2014

MakePossible, WEB Alliance, & SCWIST

Less than a month to launch our MakePossible mentorship beta version and we already have been engaged in many conversations and meetings that support its mission.

I will start with the meeting we had with BC Web Alliance last month when Cheryl (MakePossible Project Manager), Maria (SCWIST past president and MakePossible Steering Committee member) and I joined Jill Earthy of Futurpreneur and a group of powerful, intelligent, and insightful women in downtown Vancouver. We had an opportunity to discuss the need for women to be heard by the Federal Government and to receive great tips.

I should admit that there are times I feel I should let go of my idea of challenging the status-quo for promoting ‘women with accent’ in boardrooms and executive roles; a goal I set for myself in 2011 with a 5 year plan attached to it. I can just say that I felt more engaged and powerful after that meeting with WEB Alliance and I feel the strength to not let it go.

We also joined the UBC Dialogue: “Who’s in charge: Why aren’t there more women in leadership roles?” which was a fantastic, educational, and fun sold out event with many male participants and different aspects of this issue was discussed.

The fact that there is awareness and we are moving toward actions to resolve this issue is striking and for me personally is heart-warming.

I also joined WWEST workshop on how to use Social Media more strategically to support our goals. Thanks to the WWEST team at UBC for delivering such an interesting and useful subject professionally.

And the last, and definitely not the least, was the “Becoming Leaders” workshop orchestrated by Cheryl and delivered by Edna Dach. I was able to share few tips and ideas I have learned through my journey on the subject. The workshop was at SFU downtown and the group was enthusiastic, collaborative, and knowledgeable.

So, let’s gear up toward the BC Economic Forum on October 24 which is all about Women as Catalyst for Growth. It is co-hosted by the Vancouver Board if Trade and the WEB Alliance. Let’s invite the leaders, men and women in your community, to get engaged! We will not be successful in this journey if we travel alone.