2019 is nearly over and to celebrate the year gone by, WeAreTheCity is taking a look back at our top moments.
Celebrating our eleventh year, WeAreTheCity has hosted many events, conferences and awards – just to name a few. Check out what happened during our 2019 below:
January
WeAreTheCity kicked January off with a bang – announcing our 2019 Rising Star Awards.
This year, we celebrated five years of our Rising Star award. The awards are the first to recognise the achievements of women who are below Senior Management or Director level and therefore represent the female talent pipeline and the next generation of future leaders.
We also announced our judges for this year’s awards – including Funke Abimbola MBE, Pips Bunce, Dr Yvonne Thompson CBE, Sherry Coutu CBE, Helene Reardon-Bond, Rene Carayol MBE, Justine Simons OBE, Brenda Trenowden CBE and many more leading industry figures.
February
February saw the first Careers Club event of the year, hosted by Deloitte. The event, attended by over 100 women, consisted of a thought-provoking speech by Vanessa Vallely, Founder of WeAreTheCity & Careers Club, followed by interactive, hands-on activities and speed networking.
WeAreTheCity’s Careers Club is a subscription-based club that provides its members with online access to over 1,000 career orientated articles, webinars, e-books, videos, workbooks and training courses. The club also entitles its members to free access to four London based learning/networking events per year, which are also filmed for the benefit of members who are unable to attend the event.
March
In March, we celebrated Gender Network’s tenth birthday!
To celebrate ten years of Gender Networks, founder Vanessa Vallely, OBE was joined by over 100 guests to open the markets at the London Stock Exchange.
Speakers included, Diane Cote, Chief Risk Officer at the LSE, who hosted the celebrations and spoke of her support for Gender Networks. Baroness Goudie, Member of the British House of Lords who shared her views about how far women have come in the past 30 years, whilst noting just how far we still have to go to achieve gender Parity.
Birgit Neu, Global Head of D&I, HSBC closed the event, sharing her reflections on the achievements of Gender Networks as a former co-chair and advisory board member. The celebration culminated in a group picture of all of guests celebrating alongside State Street’s Fearless girl statue, which now stands proudly in Paternoster Square.
Find out more about Gender Networks here.
April
In April, WeAreTheCity launched their brand-new dedicated women in tech website, WeAreTechWomen.com.
WeAreTechWomen.com aims to provide visibility of resources for women working in technology who wish to progress their careers and achieve their true potential.
The site contains over 50 links to other organisations, all of which are doing phenomenal things to help women in tech thrive. It is an exciting time to be a female technologist as so many organisations are focused on achieving gender parity within the industry.
Discover WeAreTechWomen here.
May
WeAreTheCity hosted its third full-day WeAreFutureLeaders conference for working women, sponsored by London Business School (LBS) on Friday 24 May.
The event, hosted by Melanie Eusebe, Business Strategist; Chair & Founder, The Black British Business Awards, was a huge success with over 200 female attendees from a variety of business sectors.
The conference is aimed at women, below Director level, who wish to progress in their career or who are preparing for promotion. The agenda focused on a number of key leadership skills, presented by our fantastic line up of highly sought after speakers. Alongside our short and engaging sessions, there were also ample opportunities for our guests to network and interact with our panel of industry experts.
Watch our WeAreFutureLeaders highlights below:
June
July saw the announcement of our Rising Star Awards shortlist.
Over a seven week period, we received over 1,000 nominations from across the UK and Northern Ireland. The calibre of entries for this year’s awards was exceptional.
The 200-strong shortlist showcases remarkable women within the UK from across 20 categories representing different industries/professions. An example of the amazing women shortlisted this year are; Claudia Craig, Campaign Manager, Centenary Action Group; Kelly Caswell-Treen, Regimental Quartermaster Sergeant, British Army and Rain Irshad, Autonomous Systems Lead, STFC RAL Space.
July
In July, we celebrated our amazing Rising Star winners at an event held at The Landmark Hotel, London.
Over 400 winners, sponsors, judges and guests attended the fifth Rising Star Awards and enjoyed a sparkling reception, a three-course meal and fine wine. Guests also had the opportunity to network with an array of inspiring attendees including 14-year-old, Royal Marines cadet, Bea Jackson; Dr Shola Mos-Shognamimu, Lawyer, Founder of Women in Leadership Publication; Political & Women’s rights activist; Paul Sesay, CEO & Founder, The Inclusive Companies and The National Diversity Awards; and Helene Reardon-Bond OBE, Former Director of the Government Equalities Office and international gender pay gap expert, amongst many others.
Find out more about our Rising Star Awards here.
September
In September, WeAreTheCity held their fourth Careers Club event, hosted by Man Group.
The evening, attended by over 60 women, consisted of a thought-provoking speech by ‘The Smart Career Moves Mentor’, Kay White, followed by brainstorming, hands-on activities and networking.
Drawing from her recently-released book “It’s Always Your Move – Purposeful Progress for Corporate Career Women”, during her interactive talk, Kay shared tips, strategies, mind-sets and exact words and phrases, all designed to enable you to naturally steer and navigate the choppy waters of your own career path.
October
In October, we held a dedicated event for our Rising Star alumni, in partnership with Saïd Business School, University of Oxford.
We provided our 2019 alumni with the opportunity to attend a complementary full day seminar focusing on ‘Women in Negotiation’.
Saïd Business School, University of Oxford wanted to share their insights about how men and women negotiate differently and how women can become even more effective negotiators.
November
November saw WeAreTechWomen, the technology arm of WeAreTheCity, host its fourth full-day conference for female technologists at etc. venues, Bishopsgate, London.
The conference, proudly sponsored and supported by Dell Technologies, saw over 500 attendees from across the technology sector and range of companies including Sky, Amazon, HSBC, Visa, Spotify, ASOS, Tesco, Goldman Sachs, DWP, BT and many more.
The conference was aimed at women in the tech sector who were looking to broaden their technology horizons, learn new skills and build their technology networks.
Watch highlights from the day below:
