The 11ElevenProject - Creating a Snapshot of Life Around the World on 11/11/11

Hi Everyone, I heard today about a very interesting project planned for 11 November 2011. It is called the 11 Eleven Project and it is an international not-for-profit film project that aims to use the arts to create global good. The email came from the Women's Partnership Diversity Coordinator for the project, because she wants to ensure that the story of womanhood, motherhood and sisterhood is captured in the global narrative. To find out more, and to leave a snapshot of your life on 11/11/11, please visit the official website here. If you like, you can follow them on Twitter at @11elevenproject.

All proceeds from the 2 hour documentary feature film, photographic book and world music album produced by Grammy Award Winner Imogen Heap will be donated to charities supporting the 8 UN developmental Goals including WWF, The Hunger Project, Save The Children and Hamlin Fistula.

Many thanks for your support, and good luck to the 11ElevenProject team! Andrea

Women Speakers: We Need You At Conferences!

Hi Everyone, I really liked a recent blog entry from expat marketing coach Stephanie Ward (see our interview with Stephanie on our main Expat Women site here).  Stephanie has kindly given us permission to republish it for you here.  It is a thought-provoking post about the lack of women speakers at conferences and I hope it inspires more of you to nominate yourselves as speakers at conferences.  I am sure many of you would be fabulous!  Andrea

What the Majority of Conferences Have in Common

"I was surprised over a year ago when I counted up the number of female speakers represented by a female owned Dutch speaker’s bureau to find an overwhelming number of men. I just did a recount and discovered that there are five women out of the ninety-one speakers (that’s 5%).

A couple of days ago I checked out the upcoming LeWeb conference 2010 in Paris. There are seventy speakers, eight of whom are women (11 %).

I tweeted about this and got this tweet back from the founder of the conference, Loic Le Meur: “@FireflyCoaching we think those women are worth 5 men each.”

I decided to look at other events to see what I could find. The Sprout Challenger Day that’s coming up in the Netherlands has thirteen speakers, two are women (15%).

Tedx Amsterdam is also coming up. Out of the seventeen presenters, three are women (18%).

Interesting that as I was writing this I saw this quote posted by TedX Amsterdam on Facebook: “The future is already here. It’s just not evenly distributed yet” – William Gibson.

The 2011 PINC conference to be held in Amsterdam will have two women out of sixteen speakers (13%). Looking back at all of the previous speakers at PINC, out of a total of 169, 29 are women (17%).

At the Mobile Convention Amsterdam, an Event for Mobile Marketing & Business, that was held in April 2010 there were six women speaking out of the total of thirty-six speakers (17%).

At the recent fourth edition of the Picnic event 27 of the 129 speakers were women (21%).

Please don’t shoot the messenger, the numbers are what they are.

These conferences are successful.  Is it possible that could they have a bigger impact, attract more female participants, and provide a more interesting mix of perspectives and experiences if there were more of a balance between men and women speakers?

Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely don’t want to see more women speakers for the sake of having more women if they’re not fabulous.  I honestly believe there are bright, talented, thoughtful women whose voices aren’t being heard.

So what’s the problem? Why aren’t there more female speakers at events and conferences?  For one, I’ve heard that there are simply fewer women in tech.  Another reason given is that it’s hard to find great female speakers.

Instead of focusing on why it is that way it is, I’d rather focus on the solution and how we, men and women, can all take action together to change it.

Let’s not fight about, let’s do something about it. Here are some ideas:

1. If you are a fabulous female speaker apply to speak at conferences and sign up at a speaking bureau so you can be found.

2. If you are an organizer of an event think about featuring more women speakers so that there is a balance between the number of male and female speakers.  They are out there, I promise.  And if you get stuck and can’t find anyone, ask me for names. I have a big network, I’m sure I can connect you with many savvy speakers.

3. If you attend events and conferences, tell the organizer that you’d like to see more female speakers.

4. Share this blog post with people you know who would like to help change this situation.

Have you noticed this as well?  Do you have helpful ideas and suggestions?

Dialogue For Action (For Women), June 24, NYC

Hello Everyone, Here is some information for an event in New York City on June 24, 2010, which is part of the International Herald Tribune’s Female Factor series...

Cécilia Attias Foundation For Women's Dialogue For Action

"The Dialogue for Action will function as a new dynamic platform where action-driven discussions will focus exclusively on identifying the three main women’s issues affecting each continent and finding solutions to improve them.

It will be the first event of its kind to build a dynamic community of organizations that champion the cause of women’s dignity, equality and well-being. We are delighted to be inviting NGO leaders from every continent and to provide them with a platform for dialogue and sharing best practices.

Experts and influencers from the public and private sectors of business, politics, media and academia will provide insight to identify solutions to the most pressing issues facing women.

Following the Dialogue for Action, The Cécilia Attias Foundation for Women will see that dedicated initiatives are implemented where needed. Local regional meetings will be organized as part of the follow-up in the field to assess the progress of each initiative.

With the help of dedicated NGO leaders, our media partners and through a series of creative fundraising events, we will work towards the betterment of women’s lives around the world.

Registration

If you have received an invitation letter, please complete the following online registration process to participate in the Dialogue for Action 2010.

Apply For An Invitation

The Dialogue for Action is an invitation-only forum. We welcome NGO leaders and women’s rights experts from the public and private sectors to apply.

To be considered for an invitation, please send us an email or call us at +1 (212) 794 8801 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting +1 (212) 794 8801 end_of_the_skype_highlighting ext 107."

Thanks.

The £6m Ad That's Got Britain Talking - And Sobbing

Hi Everyone, Here for your pleasure is one of those occasion videos that we give a shout-out to... because we loved it. 

It is only 90 seconds, I know it is only an advert and I did not even know who/what/where John Lewis was until after I watched it and clicked on the John Lewis site... but I found my eyes watering too!  Really well-done 90-second chronicle of the life of a woman. :-)

Read the press page first here then watch the YouTube video below (if you are reading this online) or via the press page link (if you are reading this via an email or RSS feed).

Enjoy and have a great week!  Andrea

Finalists Announced: Stevie Awards - Women In Business

Hi Everyone, The finalists were announced recently for the 6th Annual Stevie Awards for Women in Business, an international competition recognizing the accomplishments of outstanding women executives, business owners, and the organizations they run.

"More than 1,100 nominations were submitted this year for consideration in 54 categories by organizations in Australia, Canada, China, Germany, India, Japan, South Korea, New Zealand, South Africa, the United Kingdom, and the U.S.A.

Among the leading contenders with multiple Finalists are The Bioengineering Group, Salem, Massachusetts; Eulogy! Public Relations, London, UK; PetRays Veterinary Telemedicine Consultants, The Woodlands, Texas; and Wipro Technologies, Bangalore, India and East Brunswick, New Jersey.

The Stevie Awards for Women in Business are produced by the creators of the prestigious American Business Awards. The Stevies are widely considered to be the world’s premier business awards.

The final results of the 6th annual competition will be announced at an awards dinner at the Marriott Marquis Hotel in New York City on Friday, November 13. Tickets for the event are now on sale and can be purchased at www.stevieawards.com/women."

Click here to see the list of finalists. Get inspired. Maybe enter your own business next year!

Become An Expert On Google's New Knol

Have you seen Google's new site which allows you to write about your area of expertise? It's called Knol ("a knol is an authoritative article about a specific topic") and it may just offer you another great platform on which to grow your name, brand and/or network.

Knol is a bit of a cross between Wikipedia (in terms of the ability to share knowledge) and the world of blogs (in terms of its publishing tools). However, unlike Wikipedia, others can contribute their ideas/corrections for your page, but only you can edit your page.

To test their current offerings, I searched the site for the term expat and got zero articles. I then searched for the term women and it only brought up five articles:

1. Female Sexual Function and Dysfunction;
2. Urinary Tract Infection in Women;
3. The Decline in Women in Computer Science from 1940-1982;
4. Breast Pain/Lumps in Women; and
5. Libido Problems in Women.

C'mon everyone - let's get in and boost Google's offerings! I suspect the faster you get in, the more potential exposure you might gain for your name/company/brand/hobby/interest. Think about investing 30-60 minutes into creating an expert page on the new Knol - I certainly will. You never know who might discover you. :-)

Best wishes for your weekend, and thanks for your ongoing support, Andrea.

********************************************************************************

An update from Sébastien Deschamps (InterExpat and ExpatAngels): If you would like to invest the time in (the beta version of) Google's new Knol, be sure to read about the bugs, work-arounds and searchability issues first. It may help you navigate Knol and not lose your hard work. Cheers.