Heartfelt thanks to Elaine France, Founder of Women who move Mountains, for helping convene an amazing group of women to Business School Lausanne yesterday.   Elaine has a dream; she wants to help women to develop their resilience, their creative and innovation skills. Why? Because she truly believes (and so do I) that women can move mountains.

Yesterday, part of Elaine’s dream came true. 50 women from all backgrounds, sectors and interests received a warm welcome from Dean Katrin Muff , BSL, before hearing from some incredible speakers who presented their perspectives on creative leadership. The speakers and the audience went on to share their vast and profound life experiences with each other. At the beginning of the meeting, Elaine France reminded the engaged audience that “In this room right now we have over 500 years of experience!” We were advised to use that experience and open our minds, energy and creativity. And we did.

Isabelle Behrens, Intergenerator ; Michelle Blanchet, The Social Innovation Institute for Educators; Prof Natalie Wilkins, BSL and Founder of Viva Coaching and Consulting ; Servane Mouzan, Ogunte and Programme director of the Womanity Foundation; and Amy Carroll, Carroll Coaching kept us reflecting, interacting and laughing for the entire afternoon . We missed our friend and BSL colleague, Prof Nadene Canning, AllSystemsGo, but will catch up with her at our next event.

I was happy to share some of my life experience with this great group of people; I felt it was important to talk about the power of platforms, passion, purpose and promotion. And not just work promotion or self-promotion, but the way we promote and help each other to give the very best of ourselves, every day and everywhere. Platforms are important – when we engage in different activities we build up our networks, our credibility and our impact. Not a bad idea….

Thanks again, Elaine, for leading us all through the event in such a lively and caring way. I know we are all looking forward to meeting soon again.

Watch this Space……

Mary Mayenfisch-Tobin, BCL, LL.M, Solicitor