During the W.I.N Global Leadership Forum, participants were able to attend a wide variety of skill building workshops and interesting working groups. The range of choices included favorites from previous years as well as new additions.
Workshops – Inspiring Personal Change
Among the returning workshop leaders were Helen Eriksen, author, international speaker and corporate storyteller, who lead close to 200 women in a workshop on how to find your mission. Her workshop was very inspiring and took participants through a process of creating a mission statement. By grouping them together in groups of two, she facilitated discussions that allowed participants to identify and clarify their core values, alter the way we act and in the end use more of our potential. The engagement was high and you could feel that many women made valuable progress for themselves.
Joanne Thomas Yaccato, who runs her own consulting group, led a workshop on how to reach the real world of women consumers. With a highly engaging style, she engaged a room filled with women by showing visual examples from every day life. At one point she even made the entire group leave the room to walk over to the sponsor area for a look at the Volvo car and its logo.
Another highly regarded workshop at the 2006 W.I.N event was Linda Love’s Pink Panter Program – biting the barriers to productivity. Linda, who is head of training & development at Adecco Group in the UK, lead a workshop that helped participants learn a practical way to achieve results at work. The room was completely full and as the professional women who had attended the workshop was walking out one could hear how many discussions continued even after the workshop had ended.
Working Groups – Discussion and Action
The working group on empowering women in developing countries was very well received. Moderated by Denise Andrews and with valuable contributions by Tina Tinde from UNHCR, Magdalena Musiala, Gabriella Kluck from UNRWA, Margaret Konima Sesay from Sr Leon, and Ralph Schonenbach from Trestle Foundation. With a goal to look at existing initiatives that we as women can support and at the same time identify other challenges around the world where help is needed, this working group generated valuable insights.
The working group on Women in Science and Technology was a welcomed addition to W.I.N 2006. More than 30 European, North America, Middle East, African and Asian people (29 women and 1 courageous man) attended the working group The session was moderated by Charleen Michel, W.I.N. International Board of Advisors and included Speakers and Participants from Cisco, IBM, Shell, Siemens, Hewlett Packard, Johnson and Johnson, Dow Chemical and private businesses who shared their immense amount of experience, knowledge and dynamism as we looked at the future of science and technology and explored how women can play an active leadership role to shape it in a positive way. The group generated a vast amount of valuable ideas and suggestions. One thing the group emphasized was the need to use technology as the enabler to support interaction with people. They also made the following recommendations for women in science and technology to play an active leadership role and to shape it in a positive way:
- provide cultural education online to facilitate understanding of difference between cultures
- Provide e-mentoring to support develop of others
- Use a common language for use in e-communications, e.g., email, Internet, etc.
The working group on Entrepreneurship was monitored by Diane Morris, VP TIAW and featured Fernandina Santico-Ong, Preethi Nair, Frederiuqe Clavel and Graziella Zanoletti. With an objective to look at the future of entrepreneurship and how to best support women interested in starting their own business Dianne lead a world-café style discussion.
The working group on Women on Corporate Boards was moderated by Mirella Visser, Founder of the Center for Inclusive Leadership and included Avivah Wittenburg-Cox, Managing Partner Diafora and Annalisa Gigante of EPWN. The working group aimed to provide insights and inspiration for women who are ambitious to serve on boards.
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