Buzz Hour Year End Breakfast
2 December 2008
Corner Cafe, 6th Ave Walmer
During the year we have regular Buzz Hours, an hour every Tuesday where like minded women in business can get together and discuss their business and its challenges and tribulations. At the end of every year, we celebrate the connections made and the year that has passed by having a breakfast together. It was lovely morning with some new connections forged and others cemented. We look forward to another wonderful year with these brilliant ladies.
Year End Function
21 November 2008
Elizabeth Place, Pickering Street
Review by: Susan Lascelles, Communications Portfolio
As a celebration of a year of Hard work, we always end the year off with a FUN event. This year we had Nikki Cloete-Barrass, a well accomplished Songstress and Comedienne to entertain us. We had heaps of fun, and for some, a surprise was in store when we found out how the shape of our lipsticks reflects the type of personality we are. A lot of our members also use this function as a "Year End function thank you", for their own clients. So keep that in mind for next year if you are stuck for ideas. All in all it was a great success and we managed to collect a lot of presents for underpriviledged children, which were so graciously donated by the guests. We delivered these on the 5th of December and the smiles on those little faces is just something to be treasured.
Hurdles and Help: RBAA Winners Road to Success
12 November 2008
Cherry Place, Heugh Road
Review by: Sue Gaskin, Mentoring H&H Portfolio
The Regional winners of the RBWAs gave us an overview of their journey to success and we were bowled over by the sheer guts and determination of these very worthy winners. Red Cherry Adventures hosted us with around 46 attending.
2010 Update
4 November 2008
NMMU Goldfields Auditorium
Review by: Salome Clack, Task Team Member
In the runup before 2010 hits Port Elizabeth, we, PERCCI and BWA, through a strategic alliance are trying to assist businesses and the public at large in understanding and gaining insight into the progress that is happening and the challenges we face and how we can overcome them.
We were fortunate in November, with the assistance of most generous sponsors to host Dr Nikolaus Eberl, author of "BrandOvation" on how Germany won the World cup™ in 2006. He is also currently engaged in Internal Branding for the 2010 FIFA World Cup™.
Through the most amazing presentation it dawned on us that Germany was in the exact same place economically as we are today ahead of the 2010 FIFA World Cup™. It gave us all a really good feeling to know that YES it is POSSIBLE. The most important message though that came across is that we must take ownership and not wait for others to do things. We the public and business sectors need to take the lead and in doing so we are guaranteed to make this World Cup™ the best yet.
Businesswoman of the Year Winners Road Show Lunch
22 October 2008
Elizabeth Place, Pickering Street
On the 22nd October we hosted the winners of the national Businesswoman of the Year Awards in Port Elizabeth. I was very priviledged to have been in the audience when these two fine businesswomen, Mardia van der Walt-Korsten and Chichi Maponya received their prestigous awards in August. To be in the prescence of such extreme excellence is very invigorating and extremely inspirational. These Women are Mothers, Sisters, Daughters, just like you and I and have forged ahead in the business world and succeeded. The stories of their rise to success were interesting, phenomenal and it made you realise that we can do this. We all have the potential to be great. All in all the luncheon was a huge success and every single person, male and female, in the room, went away inspired. Thank you Mardia and Chichi for giving so freely of your time.
Who is BWA?
9 October 2008
Saffron Coffee Shop, Uitenhage
To reach out to our Uitenhage members we have a "Who is BWA?" presentation there once a quarter. The Saffron Coffee Shop generously offer up their facility between 5:30 and 6:30 to enable us to do this presentation. We had a lively session and welcomed existing members and some potentially new members. Everyone went away with a new sense of understanding about BWA, its value adds and how they can be of assistance to our office through the various portfolio's task teams.
Hurdles and Help: Googling like a Pro
2 October 2008
The Paragon, Pickering Street
Review by: Ansi van der Westhuizen, H&H Task Team
BWA members, Jane Stevenson and Caroline Morgan are self-confessed internet addicts. They shed some light on Googling effectively and demonstrated how to find information quickly! They showed us how to use the internet as a business tool that can save valuable time.
"Some things Man was never meant to know. For everything else, there's Google."
Journey of Hope Luncheon
24 September 2008
The Cattle Baron, Sunridge Park
"Strike as woman and you strike a rock", these are the words that come to mind when one thinks of the women who have had to face breast cancer in their lives. On the 24 September we held The Journey of Hope luncheon to raise funds to help women who cannot afford to go for expensive but very necessary breast cancer treatment. One of the speakers was Annelie Saker, she told us her life story, her battle with breast cancer. What a phenominal woman, and listening to her, one realises how strong a "woman-being" really is. To have to go through something like that not once but twice and to live to share the story of her triumphant conquest is amazing.
Of course as you all know the BWA team and everyone that was involved managed to run yet another event very successfully. Yes there were tears shed,but who wouldnt be touched after listening to Annelie's story. Johan Deysel of Nedbank Vehicle and Asset Finance, managed to soften the mood with a few jokes, and got us all laughing and celebrating life.
Thanks to our sponsors, our guests were very pleased with everything from the devine food to the wonderful goodie bags and prizes galore. There are some wonderfully generous people in Port Elizabeth.
We are looking forward to assisting with this cause again next year.
Hurdles and Help: Conflict Management
9 September 2008
Home and Decor Centre, Kempston Road
Review by: Sue Gaskin, Mentoring H&H Portfolio
Handling Conflict in the Workplace. Life Coach - Bev Campbell, Life line director - Susan Potgeiter and Industrial Psycholgist J Janse Van Rensburg gave us information and strategies to cope with conflict at work. This was really well attended by over 50 at the Home and Décor Centre, Korsten
Who is BWA?
26 August 2008
Nedbank Boardroom, Westview Drive
Businesswomen's Association is one of the most inspirational Women's organisations in South Africa. This is something you get to realise everytime you attend a "Who is BWA?"
Every second month we invite old members, new members and potential members to join us for a "Who is BWA?" presentation to ensure that our members know exactly how the BWA operates, how they can benefit and how they can be of assistance to their local branch.
After the presentation the feedback is that: "We feel revitalised and we want to be part of this dynamic organisation that has so many phenomenal women as part of its membership base.
It was wonderful to be able to host this specific "Who is BWA?" at our local Nedbank office. We always end of the presentation with a cup of tea and coffee to encourage these businesswomen to network with each other.
Hurdles and Help: Quick Connections with a Twist
20 August 2008
Nedbank Boardroom, Westview Drive
Review by: Sue Gaskin, H&H Portfolio
We took the opportunity to have structured networking in groups of 8 – 10. A chance to get to know other members and what they do and some of the challenges they are facing. (Boardroom Nedbank Suite)
Hurdles and Help: Service
14 August 2008
Saffron Coffee Shop, Uitenhage
Review by: Sue Gaskin, Mentoring H&H Portfolio
Uitenhage – Service Excellence – Panel was Sue Hagerman, who spoke about the importance of Internal Customer Service, Margaret Smith gave tips on how to deliver excellent service to external customers using the 4 Fundamentals Attitude, Consistency, Teamwork and Service and Sue Gaskin gave advice on how to GET great service from your suppliers and what to do to get results when there is a service problem. 20 attended at the Saffron Coffee shop.
Woman's Day
29 July 2008
Boardwalk Conference Centre
During the Year we have our Serious events and then we have our Fun events. Women's Day is a fun event with a Business tone.
We had set up an interview panel with our fabulous comedian Gino Fabbri as the host and prominent businesswomen in PE as the panel. Serious questions were broached with equally serious answers and insights. Gino ensured that the attention was riveted to the ladies speaking, but lightened it with a joke or double entendre here and there. He then entertained us to the hilt with his fabulous show and the women present thoroughly enjoyed their evening.
Virtual Board - Kick Off
14 July 2008
Siyaloba Training Academy
One of our Value Adds for members is our virtual board where members can become mentees in this programme. The mentors are made up of prominent business men and women of Port Elizabeth and both the mentee and the mentor find this programme hugely beneficial. We run two sessions per year and each runs for 5 months at a time. Monthly meetings are held between the mentee and their two mentors to assist them in the specific area they feel they are lacking or need assistance with. To become a mentee the only requirement is to be a valid paid up member of the BWA. Call us at the office if you would like your name to be in the intake for February 2009.
Hurdles and Help: Marketing
10 July 2008
Paragon Room, Magnetic Storm
Review by: Sue Gaskin, Mentoring H&H Portfolio
Tips for Successful marketing. Marketing gurus Anita Palmer, Susan Lascelles and Rosa Martens joined the panel to share their experience and expertise in marketing. (Paragon Room – Magnetic Storm)
We had about 45 in attendance.
Matric Workshop
2 July 2008
Kelway Hotel
Review by Betsy Ings, Youth Outreach Portfolio
The Matric Peer Capacity Building Workshop was held on Wednesday, the 2nd of July 2008, hosted by BWA/NEDBANK and supported by Die Burger at the Kelway Hotel.
Our aim this year was to capacitate 50 learners from 5 disadvantaged schools –- as “Peer Informants”, equipping them to take the talks and information back to their peers and so ‘pay their opportunity forward’.
Chatty Secondary School, James Jolobe High School, Bertram Senior Secondary School, Walmer High School and Celliers Hoerskool attended this very successful day.
The Girls will relay the talks and workshop to their peers during life orientation classes back at school, and BWA will follow up with the 5 disadvantaged schools, in August, with the assistance of the 8 NMMU Peer Councilors.
Learners were collected and returned to their respective schools by the Silver Cloud Bus.
Relevant topics were discussed - Image-grooming/time management/networking/finances/CV-interview skills/studies – info on why-where-what and how – and how to GRAB opportunities.
Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University’s Kim and Deidre and 8 Peer Facilitators from different societies joined us at the Matric Workshop and Kim and Nyala were guest speakers covering various aspects of studies and various choices. The NMMU Peer Facilitators mingled with the 42 matriculants. The Speakers were all professional women in each category – with one professional man to balance the day!
BWA provided the food & beverages, and plenty of goodies for the girls goodie bags and Lucky Draw prizes. All the prizes related to the topics covered.
Our theme allowed us to reach many young people who were unable to attend the special day. BWA has a sense of urgency about our young women of the future; we consider them to be the pioneers of the future.
Cell C Take a Girl Child to Work Day
29 May 2008
Review by Betsy Ings, Youth Outreach Portfolio
We met with 2 very nervous teachers at Hankey at the Cell C induction meeting. After the initial calls and introduction of our vision for the day things warmed up.
We decided with the assistance of Nedbank to make this day different, to not only introduce the girls to a workplace, but to allow them to participate in networking on the day during a formal lunch and prize giving. We coached 2 girls to act as MC’s during the formal lunch. We facilitated a competition where the young ladies introduced us to themselves using any medium, with a wonderful prize - a Nedbank bursary of R 10 000 for their post matric studies.
Dornel and Betsy visited Hankey and met with 53 very nervous matriculants. We watched and enjoyed with a lump in the throat as the matriculants shared their hearts, souls and dreams with us, using song, dance, poems and essays. We enjoyed cake and tea and did some last minute planning for the big day on the 29th of May.
Cell C’s arrangements and procedures guided us during the course of all the activities and we greatly appreciated their professional approach. We received great media coverage with the visit of the Cell C Camera Crew and Die Burger and La Femme vying for the attention of the hosts and matriculants.
The hosts arrived early nervous and excited to host the 2 bodies for the day. We even had our very own chauffeur from the Reserve Bank dressed in his Sunday best to collect his charges.
A noisy bunch of teenagers arrived ready to tackle the challenge.
The day became a landmark to all. The highlight of the day was a very demure Bulelwa Links, the very deserving winner of the bursary, who recited her poem on Aids and stirred all present.
The hosts remained behind for the luncheon not keen to let their charges go; we handed out many gifts, hugs and words of inspiration.
BWA has left an impression on the lives of 52 women of the future. We are visiting Hankey on the 25th of July to hand out the certificates and photos to all the matriculants who participated and we have received excited telephone calls of great expectation to see our new friends.
I learnt today that a woman can have her own business – Nomakethu Tshume , 17 (BWA)
A choice that I learnt about today is to love what you are doing, like your job & your career choice – Thandokazi Swepu, 18 (Nedbank)
The hosts today were absolutely wonderful. The workplaces were beautiful and all things on the day were absolutely perfect – Asanda Blou, 18 (Nedbank)
I enjoyed having learned valuable things as no one can take that away from me and meeting new people and making wonderful friends out of the new people – Sharolyn Gadas, 18 (Siyaloba)
Cell C Take a Girl Child to Work Day
Spearhead Marketing and Design hosted 2 grade 12 learners from Alexander Road High. The day kicked off with a talk on “Image” by Michelle Brown at the Cell C offices. Thereafter the girls went on tours of Radio Kingfisher, Media 24 and Down Town Print, in order to gain insight into all the areas of advertising and marketing. At lunchtime we all met for a coffee and a snack at Woolworths, together with girls being hosted by Browns PR & Francarlo Designer Goldsmiths. Thereafter, some time was spent at the office, learning about administration systems, as well as the normal day-to-day running of an office. They also spent some time sitting with a designer in the studio who took them through the design process from conceptualization on paper, through to graphics on Apple Mac. Spearhead has been involved with Cell C take a girlchild to work day for 4 years and feels it is a fantastic platform to expose girls to the realities of the careers they are interested in. This gives them valuable information when making their choices in studies and career paths.