This past year, restrictions have meant that meeting new people has been a struggle. But, for the Women’s Business Club, an organisation reliant on the ability to network, adapting to the pandemic was the only option.
The Women’s Business Club is a network and community that helps serve women and supports them in their journeys as businesswomen.
In a pre-Covid world, the organisation ran lots of events all over the UK, that were tailored to towards giving specific advice and training. But ultimately, every single event was based around the principle of networking and the ability to connect with others.
Angela De Souza, CEO of Women’s Business Club, said that networking is the backbone to the business and that “it’s who we are and what we do.” Due to this, it was essential for the organisation to find a way to continue through the pandemic and that the events could go ahead. They worked to ensure that the only change to the events, was that we are meeting online instead.
For Angela, the highlight of the year was the realisation that the annual awards ceremony could take place virtually after initially cancelling the ceremony. She admitted she had reservations about this method, but it turned into ‘the biggest awards ceremony we’ve ever held!’
The organisation’s mission is ‘To build a national network of businesswomen’, but hosting virtual events came with the realisation that opportunities were being missed and so many more people could be involved. This opened a whole new avenue of success for the organisation and unexpectedly, during the pandemic, the Women’s Business Club’s network actually grew and as of January 2021, the business network went global. Which is a positive result that never would have occurred ‘if we weren’t faced with this pandemic.’
For the future, Angela is ‘expecting big things’ and plans to expand as much as possible, with the goal of donating £one million pounds to charity and to reach out to women of all different backgrounds ‘to offer our expertise and support to all.’ But what remains is the longing to get back to in-person events as ‘you simply can't replace the human touch. It's too precious.’
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