Often, women entrepreneurs find themselves juggling both their businesses and their personal commitments; it can be an isolating and lonely experience.
On Saturday 29th February nearly 50 women got together for the first Pearls Networking Conference, in Malvern. The theme for the conference was ‘No Grit, No Pearl; developing resilience to turn your grains of sand into pearls.’
Founded by Malvern businesswoman Esther Partridge-Warner, Pearls Networking is a business group that meets up twice a month with the aim of connecting and supporting local businesses and raising awareness of local charities.
As the delegates arrived, they were given a tote bag from NatWest which included various freebies and offers, it was just like unwrapping a stocking of gifts on Christmas morning!
Coffee, tea and fruit juice were served in the beautiful bar at Elmslie House. Anna Taylor had been up at the crack of dawn making both gluten free and dairy free muffins so the delegates could start the day in a healthy way.
Beccie Hawes (the anchor for the day) cheerily greeted everyone and sold them raffle tickets; part of the aim of the day was to raise money for West Mercia Women’s Aid.
Once the day got underway, Beccie introduced us to her sack of annoyance which she was pleased to ditch for the day to focus on more positive things!
The first speaker was Beverley Jones who fantastically stepped in at the last moment, as Alison Holmes was unable to attend. Bev introduced us to Aristotle and the 3 areas that our 60 seconds introductions should include. We paired up with someone we didn’t know and practiced with them and tweaked our elevator pitches.
Amber Coates the community fundraiser from West Mercia Women’s Aid gave us an overview of how they help women and their children who face domestic abuse.
Then over a mix and mingle session we practiced further, as well as visiting the various exhibitors, taking selfies in front of the beautiful flower wall created by Livia Whittall and enjoying more healthy snacks with our tea or coffee.
Next Alice Jennings presented an overview of the eight areas of our business and we scored them to see how balanced they are. Alice gave us practical tips to boost our businesses and asked us to focus on one thing to change. It was such a great session and Alice’s real-life examples made her talk pertinent to everyone. Alice gave everyone a beautiful takeaway reminder of how resilient we can be.
Sara Rawstron then focussed in on our personal resilience, we audited ourselves in this session and Sara gave practical tips to change our mindset and helped us to understand how important our own wellbeing is.
We had a two-course hot lunch supplied by Home Kitchen, it was beautifully presented and very tasty. Over the lunch break there was an opportunity to have a mini pampering session for donations to West Mercia Women’s Aid, photographer Amanda Jackson had a schedule for headshots and Alice Jennings and Helen Rebello signed books. Meanwhile the exhibitors were chatting with delegates and connections were being made.
Helen Rebello introduced us to three self-care practices that are easily incorporated into everyday life, why had meditating in the shower not occurred to us before? As an extra bonus how powerful is music to lift our mood?
There was a last opportunity to buy raffle tickets and to name the teddy in the final Mix and Mingle of the day. Louise Roberts from Alimenti Food Services provided beautifully personalised homemade biscuits to go with our tea and coffee.
Alice Jennings returned to the stage accompanied by three awesome ladies who had agreed to share their real-life resilience stories. Some of us needed tissues!
The day ended with Elaine Meredith from Hussingtree Gin, who not only shared their journey into gin, but prepared beautiful bramble cocktails ably assisted by Anna and Esther, Julie Brand from Tigley Textiles and Beccie Hawes.
Amber Coates from West Mercia Women’s Aid drew the raffle prizes and a sum of over £400 was raised for the charity on the day.
Beccie wrapped up the day by thanking everyone who had worked so hard to make the day such a success. She was a great anchor, keeping everyone on track time wise throughout the day and adding her thoughts and insights, reinforcing the speaker’s main points.
All in all, it was a day full of laughter and connection, good food, time to focus on ourselves and our businesses whilst raising money for West Mercia Women’s Aid.
Organiser, Esther said, “Getting together with your peers is such an important thing to do when you work in your own business. I hope that everyone left the day feeling motivated and overflowing with new ideas to drive their businesses forward.”
A date has been set for 2021, 27th February – so put this date in your diary now!