After a very successful first edition in Moscow in March of last year, IE Business School hosted its second edition of “Women in business” events on January 27th 2011 at the Instituto Cervantes, Spanish cultural center, in Munich. This event called “Women in Business: Seize your opportunities” was also a huge success, not only in terms of attendance (more than 100 professional women participated) and the public´s enthusiasm, but also with regards to the presentations and inspiring debate held during the round table discussion.
There were 130 registrations, after calling and confirming, the list went down to 106 and finally, 105 people attended the event- Just to prove how precisely things work in Germany J. Thanks to the post on ‘internations.org’ we reached out to the international community in Munich; so the public consisted not only of Germans, but also Russians, Americans, French, Spanish, Polish, South-African, Chinese and Thai.
“It was a worthy evening worth the time invested. I believe it helped me decide on what to pursue, and I must say with my varied interests I have a better direction now!” said Manthati Phomane from Lesotho.
“El evento del jueves fue increíble, no sólo por la multitudinaria asistencia, sino también por los fantásticos speakers, fue muy interesante y estuvo muy bien organizado.” said Noelia Rodriguez Gonzalez from Spain.
The topic “Seize your Opportunities” centered the presentations and debate on career opportunities that women can seize nowadays in order to pursue their professional development and manage their personal lives at the same time.
We started our event with a wonderful and inspiring presentation about the position of women in the world and professional development in general by Deise Leobet, Europe & CIS countries Director at IE’s International Development Department. Then Mrs. Laura Marsi, Head of Talent Management at Allianz (our main sponsor of the event) presented their diversity strategy followed by a presentation about the implementation of “women quota” by Deutsche Telekom’s Diversity Manager Mrs. Sabine Bothe. All three presentations showed interesting facts and figures on the role of women in the world and in Germany, but more importantly, examples of best practices and good advice were given by female managers!
After the presentations we held a round table discussion joined by two other experienced business women; Mrs. Katharina Le Thierry, a marketing specialist (worked for Colgate Palmolive, Henkel, LVMH) and former general manager of Puma and Mrs. Manuela Kampp-Wirtz, the Head of Publishing of Vogue, Glamour and Myself magazines(The Myself magazines were also distributed at the event.) We rounded off with a networking cocktail with Spanish wine and tapas.
The atmosphere was very lively and the public was eager to ask questions during the round table discussion. It was clear this topic is HOT in Germany and some women even asked when the next edition would be.
“Dear IE, I am looking forward to the next one! I did not expect so many women from so many backgrounds and nationalities, it was a great experience and provided very insightful ideas.” Said Isabel Blazquez, MSc International Management 2010, IE Business School .
The event was successful in increasing IE’s popularity in Germany, we had announcements in major national newspapers; Handelsblatt, Suddeutsche Zeitung, Financial times Deutschland and Die Welt. Locally, in Munich, we were able to promote the event well through social media, local contacts and word of mouth.
The topic, format and timing worked perfectly, definitely an event to be repeated in the near future…
Stay tuned for announcements of the third edition…
Warm greetings from the IE representation office in Munich,
Isabelle
ps. To see more pictures of the Munich event go to: https://picasaweb.google.com/111829274255741244877/BusinessWomenSeizeYourOpportunities_27012011Munich#
About the author
External Relations professional with extensive experience in Business Development, Marketing and Sales, Daisy has worked for private companies, international organizations and educational institutions. She graduated from IE´s MBA Program in 2004 and has been with IE ever since, her positions including International Programs Admissions Director and International Development Director for Europe and Central Asia. Prior to IE, Daisy worked as an External Relations Director for the InterAmerican Development Bank (IDB) in Brazil. She started her professional career as a broadcast and print journalist, having worked for several news channels and media, including The Philadelphia Inquirer, Folha de Sao Paulo, Gazeta Mercantil and TV Manchete. In 1997, she launched her own communications agency in Brasilia, Brazil as her first steps in entrepreneurship. She has worked and lived in six countries and speaks five languages. In addition, she is an animal rights supporter and is involved in several women’s professional development projects.