AGM MEETING EuropeanPWN 2009

On June 26-27 2009 the EuropeanPWN board and presidents of all networks gathered in Nice for the Annual General Meeting (AGM). In a 1 ½ day session they looked back on past achievements, exchanged best practices and developed plans for the next year. Organized this year by the team of Nice Cote d’Azur’s president Susanne Forsman-Hey, participants were warmly welcomed by Team Cote D’Azur’s Ségolène Pin-Monsaingeon.

Electronics & Automation 2009

High Tech Heels, from design to manufacturing

Buzzing with anticipation and energy! You know that type of event, nothing has happened yet – and the room is electric. That was the sort of environment pre-existing in the Croesezaal at the Jaarbeurs in Utrecht on the 29^th of May. While I do experience that feeling on a regular basis at EuropeanPWN events, I don’t often come across it in my work conferences.

Regina Mehler, Marketing Director Central Europe & Emerging Markets at Adobe Systems
Post event summary
Thursday, January 22nd 2009

During the previous months the media and public discussions have been mainly gravitating around one topic: the economic crisis across all industries. Especially as marketing budgets are often cut first, the profession is prepared for a tough time ahead. What is often neglected is that change also means opportunities.

Julie Gilbert comes as a “two-in-one”: There’s the Senior Vice President of Best Buy, who leads retail training, leadership development, and the company’s innovation engine for 140,000+ employees worldwide. And there is the founder of WOLF (Women’s Leadership Forum), through which Best Buy increased its female market share by more than USD 3.6 billion and the number of female general managers by 40 percent.

While most reports on women in IT concentrate on the need to meet the demand in quantity of IT professionals, less documented are the significant values that women can contribute to the quality and future success of the field – by bridging communications, enabling user-driven design, increasing innovation through diversity, and facilitating organisational change.

Whatever the reason for starting a business, there are several important tips that apply to everyone. Unfortunately, some women’s ability to execute the advice may be hampered by an underlying belief.

Many women and men are drawn to starting an enterprise because of the desire for independence and the opportunity to reach big goals. Drivers include entrepreneurial passion, personal reward, a wish to escape dissatisfaction in the workplace or simply to have flexibility and create a good work-life balance.

But does advice for men and women differ in any way?

Mary van der Boon looks at why there are fewer women in top positions in business, government and universities in the Netherlands than in other European countries, and suggests how we can bring about change.

Countless surveys and studies have come to the same conclusion: gender diversity in the Netherlands, particularly the streaming of women to top positions in business, government and universities, lags sorely behind other European countries.

Most parties on both sides of the Great Gender Debate would agree on the facts. The story gets murky when you ask why this occurs and what can be done about it.

There are a few popularly-held myths and beliefs around women and leadership in the Netherlands, and it might be useful to look at some of these old chestnuts from a new angle:

by Jonette Stabbert, Stabbert Creative Services

I’d dropped out of the organization for a few years, but when I heard that business coach extraordinaire, Stephanie Ward, was facilitating a networking evening, I had to register for it. It was fabulous! In fact, I was so impressed by the event and attendees, I immediately renewed my membership.

If you weren’t there, here’s what you missed: