Exhibition News July 2021 | Page 19

Feature anyone else . “ But what I have noticed is there are some traits with women that I don ’ t see as often in men , particularly around the notion of imposter syndrome , and we are definitely less assertive , and this is often forged early in your career . It ’ s simple things like someone once said to me , Lori , if you don ’ t believe in yourself , why should anyone else believe in you , that stuck with me for so long . “ The one thing that I found really encouraging unlike in my previous life ,
Lori Hoinkes
“ It is about making sure that everyone who wants to be part of WIE gets an opportunity to achieve their personal best , whatever that might be .”
where there were very few women , is that women are very well represented in events . So , I was just really keen to try and give them an opportunity to have support particularly early in their careers . It is about making sure that everyone who wants to be part of WIE gets an opportunity to achieve their personal best , whatever that might be . “ So , we ’ ve set up four pillars that we want to focus on : the first one is focused on networking and developing a peer group to share experiences with , we are keen that this is not organiser only , this is for the industry and the industry doesn ’ t happen if we don ’ t have venues or suppliers . “ Secondly mentoring is really important . We have a group of very experienced and seasoned mentors at present and we ’ re going to extend this in the future . Thirdly we believe Education is vital and we have teamed up with Rego to create our academy which has a range of options to develop the vital skills necessary . “ Finally , the fourth pillar that we ’ re focusing on is career support which is more bespoke and were we work with our members on a case-by-case basis .
Someone maybe thinking about launching their own company and want to understand how to raise finance or may be thinking about taking a year off to look after a relative and wants to know how ’ s that going to impact their career and how to get back into the industry afterwards .” All of which sounds like a very practical and well thought through plan which will have real impact on the industry , how do people get involved ? “ So , we really went back and forth on either making it free for everyone or charging for membership . What we realised is that there is cost involved in running WIE , we are going to be getting people together so we do need public liability insurance and we need a website to market and promote it as well as establishing it as a legal entity . This led us down the paid membership route . “ We have both individual and corporate membership ; individual membership is only £ 79 per year so very well priced in my opinion . One WIE Academy training class is worth way more than that , so it offers great value . We ’ ve also had a number of corporates joining which is great news .”
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