Held at the Hotel Russell, London on November 18th, the 2009 National everywoman Conference was a great success, providing delegates with rare access through presentations, workshops and discussions to some of the UK’s most successful women in business – women who have taken an idea and through hard work and determination made it into a successful business.

• Review
• Resources
• Photos
• Feedback
  

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Review

Karen Gill MBE and Max Benson MBE opened the conference with a few findings from the recent Avon UK Research, which makes for encouraging reading. There's been significant growth in female business start ups over the past 12 months and some are forecasting a 100% rise in female business owners over the next 10 years.

Keynote Speech

Chef and Broadcaster Allegra McEvedy then took to the stage to give a rousing, inspirational insight into how she got where she is today and what her top tips are for aspiring business fledglings: "Graft is good, know your business from the bottom up".

VIDEO: View highlights from Allegra McEvedy's keynote speech

Masterclasses

Attendees then broke out into masterclass sessions. In the 'Woburn Suite' Judith Lewis (i-level) led the Build Your Online Presence for Business Success workshop. She was joined by Carol Savage (MyDish Ltd), Tabitha Potts (Mimi Myne) and Paula Wynne (Remote Employment) who discussed their online experiences and what they recommend for businesses looking to take advantage of the world wide web.

In 'The Kensington' Antonia Chitty (ACPR) explored Key Steps to Promoting Your Business, taking into account current obstacles delegates faced in their businesses, and how to overcome them.

In the 'Grafton Room' Pauline Stewart (The Edward de Bono Foundation UK) hosted Creative Thinking - De Bono Style, looking at simple, practical and effective steps to help shift traditional approaches to thinking and improving business performance.

In 'The Bloomsbury' Mitzie Hoelscher (Gap International) discussed Leadership for Breakthrough Results, focusing on two key aspects of breakthrough leadership, providing a new capability to lead powerfully through the obstacles businesses are facing.

Panel Discussion

After lunch and an all-important networking break, and a chance to visit the conference exhibitor stands, delegates attended their second masterclass of the day, before joining back togther for a panel discussion on 'Winning Ideas'. The panel consisted of Liz Jackson MBE (Great Guns Marketing), Cary Marsh (Mydeo), Emma Wimhurst (EMpwr) and Perween Warsi CBE MBE DBA (S&A Foods), and they discussed how businesses can innovate and differentiate to gain a competitive edge in the current economic climate.

Inspirational Speech

To close the day, before more late afternoon networking, Heather White (Smarter Networking) provided some real inspiration about, conveniantly enough, networking! Her wise words included "you should never network to sell - the only thing you need to sell is yourself" and "women are excellent at networking because we care".

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Resources

This year's conference speakers and workshop presenters provided some inspirational insight and advice - some of which was captured through their presentation slides and top tips. We're happy to provide you with some of these materials to view and download.

• Allegra McEvedy: VIDEO - 'Top Tips for Business Success'
• Judith Lewis: 'Build Your Online Presence for Business Success'
• Mitzie Hoelscher: 'Breakthrough Leadership'
• Heather White: 'Smarter Networking'
  

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Photos

View photos of the
2009 National everywoman Conference

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Feedback

It was a great day and we've had some tremendous feedback. Here's just some comments (and tweets) we've received:

"Another great conference with amazingly inspirational 'real' speakers, you guys do such a GREAT job of making it a very special experience … Bravisimmi!"
Maria Banks, Strada Innovation Ltd

@SomayehA: "What a great day at everywoman national conference, very nice people and amazing speakers"

@shelleyfishel: "Met lovely people and learned from inspirational women at everywoman conference"

@bluedogjewelry: "Thanks for a great conference today. Lots of fantastic speakers and interesting delegates."

@mimimyne: "Great day at the National everywoman Conference, met and listened to some great people and enjoyed it hugely!"

@bookmidwife: Great keynote on networking to end fantastic day at everywoman

@seshet: Lovely day at the conference run by everywoman folk. Fantastic!

@BreakthruDiva: "Fab workshops and great reminders that we meet exactly who we need to meet"