News

A special AIWC activity!

Making the Most of Your Moves – 3 coaches, 3 workshops to help you deal with some of the different aspects of change on Friday October 11th from 9.45am – 1pm, 11 route de chêne, Geneva 1207, 4th floor

Nothing is as constant as change, especially for expats! But how well do you cope with change and how does change, change YOU?

Come and join us as we examine constructive ways of making the challenges and opportunities of change and transition into a positive experience for you and your family.

Family Transitions: 

Ros Cutler of Family Matters Coaching www.familymatterscoaching.com says ‘In this workshop we don’t to give you answers, but we can start to help you evaluate key parts of your parenting experience – especially those that relate to your expat family, that will help you function better in your role’.

Career Transitions: 

Pat Tunbridge of The Coach Approach www.thecoachapproach.ch will be exploring some of the questions you need to ask in order to find the ideal occupation or new career direction.

Style Solutions: 

Alison Wegner, founder of www.styleintellect.com will show you how a simple change of style can help you gain confidence, make an impact and create a positive first impression in your business and personal life.

All are welcome. Please sign up at the desk, or contact the AIWC on 022 736 0120. Cost CHF 35.00

Jo Butler, our OWIT Woman of the Year 2011 and Member of the OWIT International Advisory Board, invites you to save the date for her Annual Christmas fund-raising bazaar for Ethiopian schoolchildren.

It will take place on Saturday 23 November at the Paroisse Protestante du Montbrilliant, 14 rue Baulacre, 1202 Geneva from 10 am to 10.30 pm.

• Great Christmas presents will be on sale.
• Come help us celebrate our UN 21 Award.
• Lots of daytime activities for children as well.
• Lunch and dinner will be served.
• There will be a disco with great music for dancing from 8 p.m. to 10 pm.

OWIT Lake Geneva will have a booth at two upcoming fairs and kindly requests your help! 

OWIT member and author Dr Paul Vanderbroeck, is publishing a book entitled, Leadership Strategies for Women: Lessons from Four Queens on Leadership and Development.

This great read gives you insights into the world of four business women, takes you on their journeys to the top of their organizations and shows you how they went on to become very successful.

Paul is a chartered FCIPD CC (Chartered Institute of Personal Development) and Leadership Expert specializing in the success of women leaders. His 15 years of corporate HR experience and 10 years as an independent leadership expert have afforded him the opportunity to work with companies in industries as diverse as the automobile, banking and oil, and with top ranking business schools such as IMD and INSEAD.

Here's some great advice for women looking to be successful leaders from the author: “Don't fall into the do-as-the-boys-trap, just be your authentic self as a woman. Remember not to always believe what they tell you, e.g. sometimes women get told that they are not "ambitious" enough. This is simply an incorrect perception. In reality, women express themselves differently from men.”

Make sure you get your copy, which is available for preorder here.

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Derwyn Cafferkey, who is leading the Membership Engagement group, has written an update of where the group is and what its next steps are. Enjoy discovering what this dynamic group is working on.

The Membership Engagement group includes the previous two topics of Talent Bank and Mentoring and logically, we have split into two small subgroups to better advance progress.

Talent Bank / Talent Resources

We have decided to focus on an internal approach versus an external one, because we felt that Linkedin did a great job externally and we did not want to duplicate it. Our next steps include:

• using the existing website and current directory template, we will ask members to complete their own directory page and enter the areas in which they have passion and expertise.
• we are investigating the technical feasibility of using a search engine on the site to help OWIT members to find the right contact.
• complete the technical evaluation in August and present to the executive committee for their approval in September to launch to OWIT membership at the beginning of October.

Mentoring

• using the Talent Resources profiles we are focusing on setting up a mentoring initiative in OWIT, whereby mentors can indicate the areas in which they have passion and expertise and mentors can contact them directly to set up a mentoring relationship.
• we have also established a support structure that will help explain the rationale and benefits to members and give some skill-building materials to help them to make the most of the mentoring experience. These comprise: helpful hints for mentors and mentees, planning your first meeting, andlistening and questioning techniques.
• do a kick off session with members who have volunteered to become mentors to better prepare them for mentoring - this would take the form of a walk-through of the material and some time to practice and ask questions.
• align this with the Talent Resources work and plan to present together to the executive committee for their approval in September to launch OWIT membership in October.

Buddying of new members

• a key challenge is to convert first-time attendees into OWIT members. Feedback has shown that it can be intimidating to come into a meeting for the first time, and the connections that people make and the impression of feeling welcomed into the organization have an impact on whether people decide to become members.
• Approach:Formalize the welcoming role of OWIT members for them to become “buddies” to people coming to talks or networking events for the first time and assign a number of people per meeting to identify new participants with the following responsibility to:
• keep an eye on new participants, introduce them to people at the event and make sure they are not “stranded” with no one to talk to (no need to stay by their side all evening, just keep an eye out for them).
• provide them with info on OWIT and answer any questions (not hard sell!)
• follow up from the meeting with an email to see what their experience was and answer any other questions.
• ensure that they are inscribed on mailing lists for upcoming events and follow up ahead of the next meeting to see if they are attending.
• at the following meeting offer the same support as the first meeting.

Maybe this session at the World Summit for Information Society (WSIS) Forum is of interest to you.

The event will showcase a new initiative by ILO and UNCTAD, financed by the Government of Sweden, to integrate the ICT dimension into ILO's Framework and Guide for assessing the environment for women entrepreneurship development (WED).

It will also feature three women entrepreneurs from Africa who will speak on how ICTs are being used to enable them to build their businesses.

It's free of charge, but registration is mandatory.

The first "Women's Expo" is a business fair and networking event for Swiss and international business women to take place in Zurich on 26 May 2013. Entrance to the event is free and open to all. Exhibitors are female owners of small to medium-sized businesses from different industries all over Switzerland, ranging from fashion and beauty to interior design, nutrition, coaching and teaching. More info.

It was fascinating and energizing to see the World Café unfold as participants went from the Networking Bingo to reveal their talents to telling the story that brings them to OWIT Lake Geneva to envisioning a future without barriers to ending into a picture of possible actions and participants committing their talents and time to specific project ideas. Have a look: video clip produced by Joanna Wieczorek-Blein)!

Five topics received the most support from the participants (not ranked):

• Create a talent bank/pool - collaborative marketplace for talents
• Promote and engage female leaders in the Lake Geneva region
• Undertake (a) community action(s)
• Reach out to smaller towns in the region
• Build a mentor/buddy system

If you'd like to contribute to these or other projects, please get in touch with us!

© Maria Murphy (photo)

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