When we were summing up the previous year and called it a ‘great teacher’ little did we know that 2022 may proof even more eventful… We simply continue learning….
What did we do in 2022?
We continued with face to face meetings and online webinars.
We have had some incredible events.
We started off well with webinar about stress and were introduced to tools to combat stress. Mental health is a very important topic and the topics of well-being reappeared in other webinars, workshops and at our annual picnic. We are grateful to our resident psychologist and member Agnieszka Pawlowska for her knowledge and inner peace.
Whilst promoting our well-being we promote sustainability and the wellbeing of the environment around us. To this effect we joined the team of Thames 22 and took part in tree planting events. Not as easy as it seems but definitely rewarding.
In February we hosted a face-to-face event at the beautiful interiors of Amber Kitchens where we were inspired by their incredible interiors. Anna Magryta Urban, a financial adviser told us about mortgages and Anna Szyrynska, a beauty expert presented Souvre cosmetics.
Unfortunately in the morning of our event, the war in Ukraine broke out and the world has never been the same. Whilst we remained grateful for what we had, we felt that we could not enjoy our events if we did not do something to help. We re-arranged the celebrations of the International Women’s Day so that it became a fundraiser to help Ukraine. We used women’s power to help other women. We had a wonderful panel of incredible women: Amy Anzel, Elaine Banton and Kate Kowalska. Magda Harvey, a founder of the White Eagle Appeal and Renata Kaminska talked about their efforts to help Ukraine. We were delighted to have raised substantial amount of money which we donated to the White Eagle Appeal, Natwest DEC Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal and Renata Kaminska.
You can read more about this event: here. We just want to add that later both, Renata and Magda were recognized for their Humanitarian Work. Magda received a Points of Light award from the then Prime Minister Boris Johnson and the White Eagle Appeal received the Together Award.
Renata received a number of rewards for her book Hector, which was also translated to the Ukrainian language.
This year was rich in accolades and awards, we were very proud of the award received by our co-founder, Kate Boguslawska who was announced as one of the UK Leading Lights in Kindness and Leadership by Women of the Future Programme. We are also very proud of our Partners, GottaBe! We have applauded them and Tomasz Dyl who received many nominations and most recently, their founder, Tomasz Dyl received the Business Leader Award!
With such a team, no wonder that we have delivered a number of amazing events. In addition to the mentioned above an event organised at Drummonds Bank was amongst favorite events of the year (read more here) together with our annual picnic and a big Christmas Party organised with PBLink at another wonderful venue St Ethelburga’s Centre for Reconciliation and Peace.
We are proud that all of our 12 face to face events were not only business networking but had meaningful subjects, discussions and provided support for many social causes.
In this year our members could benefit from participation in Mastermind, which was very successful both in terms of members’ interest but also in terms of members’ achievement. Congratulations to our 2022 Graduates!
So what to expect in the 2023?
We will continue in this sprit, facilitating opportunities for you to meet, make friends and business connections, learn new things and develop professionally and personally.
We have planned 12 face to face events, one each month but obviously our members can take part in all the events organised by PBLink, which will be celebrating its 10 years anniversary in June 2023, book the event here.
We will continue with monthly webinars touching various important subjects. These will be run by our members and other external experts. We will continue with monthly Mastermind Group’s meeting as this was very successful and gave a lot of value to our members.
What’s new?
Thanks to the generosity of GottaBe! Marketing we will add a bi-monthly marketing webinar- invaluable if you run your business or want to increase your own brand.
Members will also benefit from dedicated Mental Coaching.
We will continue our work to support our members, our community and others and we will introduce new exciting collaborations.
Finally….
We would like to thank you for your journey with us and for co-creating this community.
Thank you to PBLink, Souvre and Gotta!Be for your support.
We would like to wish you a wonderful and prosperous 2023!
All the best from
WBL Team