In parnership with Kate Jackman of Arthur J Gallager, Bluewood has launched a female focussed networking group for women in business based in and around the South Coast. Nicola & Kate have been hatching this plan for a good while and really are thrilled to see it finally coming to life.
Some might argue that an all-female group isn’t considered particularly woke nowadays, but this is not a burning your bra kind of exercise or ethos, although we are super grateful to our predecessors of course for their s-heroism! … but we do think, albeit hopefully in the minority, there is still very much an old school train of thought that can’t quite acknowledge women in what have historically been considered as ‘mens’ roles’. The female CEO, MD, Director, Business Owner is difficult to grasp by some. There’s a story Nicola and Kate share that validates this very statement and which finally kicked us into action check out our Instagram – @group_name_pending to find hear the story!
Our dream is to create is a support network of like-minded women across all walks of business. Somewhere where you can gain encouragement, advice, friendship, and between us build a mechanism that can provide personal and professional growth and value to all. So ultimately, this is a group set up for and about the members and although we have a real vision as to where we would like to take it really, we would like this to evolve and grow as a group collaboration.
Our first event was 30th November at the Jetty in Ocean Village, Southampton who very kindly sponsored and supported our event. We were absolutely blown away by the turn-out of amazingly talented women who took time out of their day to commit and support. It already feels as though we have built the foundations for something big and brilliant!
Our plan for the ‘soft launch’ was to provide an intimate, relaxed and casual event, where we hoped everyone would feel comfortable and at ease to mingle. We used the time spent with our 30 guinea pigs as a market research opportunity to understand what members would see as a valuable use of time. This has given us great guidance in terms of location, time, format and content as we shape and plan for the year ahead.
You will notice that we have yet to define the name! We are currently operating under the very non-committal, “Group Name Pending”! We were really keen to ensure our first attendees engaged with what we are trying to achieve and so ran a competition to give everyone the chance to put forward their suggestions for a name, bring certain to consider the ethos of the group. We will short list to the three which we think best describes what we are looking to achieve and put it to the vote – there will of course be a prize in it for the winner which is Afternoon Tea for Two at the Harbour Hotel.
Watch this space for the name drop and if you are interested in getting involved please just drop us a message on Instagram, LI or email.