This week, it is International Women’s Day on 8 March, so a fitting time to post this guest blog about a woman who does so much to support women.
About Vanessa Vallely
Vanessa Vallely is one of the UK’s most well-networked women and has provided keynotes on a variety of career related topics for over 250 companies worldwide. Vanessa is also one of the UK’s most prominent figures in gender equality and often provides guidance and consultancy to both government and corporate organisations who are seeking to attract, develop and retain their female talent.
At the height of her successful 25 year career in financial services, Vanessa launched the award winning WeAreTheCity.com in 2008 as a vehicle to help corporate women connect and grow professionally and personally. WeAreTheCity.com now has over 60,000 members and in 2013 launched a sister site in India.
Vanessa is also the founder of UK wide diversity forum Gender networks (formerly The Network Of Networks, or ‘TNON’) which brings together diversity leaders from over 120 firms to share best practice. Vanessa is the author of the book “Heels of steel: Surviving and Thriving in the Corporate World’ which tracks her career and shares 13 chapters of tips to succeed in the workplace.
Over the past seven years, she has been named Women in Banking and Finance’s Champion for Women, Financial News Top 100 Rising Star, The International Alliance for Women Top 100 Women globally and Brummells Top 30 entrepreneurs. In 2015 Vanessa was in GQ UK’s Top 100 Connected Women and The Evening Standard’s 100 Most Influential Londoners. Vanessa is a regular guest on TV and radio and also sits on the Government Digital Services Advisory Board.
Vanessa is also The Pearly Queen of The City of London, a tradition that has been in her family for over 100 years. She is an avid charity worker and sits on the board for Cancer Research UK as one of its Women of Influence.
Keynotes and workshops include The Power of Profile, The Power of Social Media, The Big Brand Theory, Speed Networking, Pay it Forward and Manage your Career.
What headline sums up 2016 for you?
BeBoldForChange, which is this year’s IWD theme. Both I and WeAreTheCity pushed our boundaries last year and took risks to introduce new things we wanted to do. I personally learnt to respect my time and that if I was to be able to take on new things, that I had to let some other things go!
What has changed in the last 12 months?
I have lots more help at WeAreTheCity which has taken the pressure off of me to come up with ideas and mobilise our initiatives. Our client base has grown substantially as has our reach to working women. In 2016, we ran the Rising Star awards in India and we introduced a new conference for Women in Technology, WeAreTechWomen. Both were substantial projects which we needed to fit in with an already packed annual calendar of activities and events.
How did any change come about?
From a professional perspective, I think we just decided to take more risks. We stepped in to markets we previously had no presence in, lucky for us what we brought to the table was a little bit different. I think having such a strong team at WeAreTheCity means there is no end of ideas of things we can do, it is just a case of prioritising what we do and ensuring that we focus on projects that will have the biggest impact for working women.
What is the significance of this change for you?
We are growing at pace! Which is great, but it also means that we have to adapt and be flexible to change. WeAreTheCity started in 2008 as a part time hobby whilst both me and my husband were working full time. Now it is an organisation that works with over 100 clients, with 9 staff who service over 72,000 working women, 8 million website visitors per month, whilst running two, soon to be three sets of awards as well as 20 events and 2 conferences per year! It’s a tall order for a small team, but we absolutely love what we do so it doesn’t feel like a job or hard work.
What next for you in 2017?
WeAreTheCity are in the middle of canvassing for nominations for this year’s Rising Star awards in the UK as well as planning our forthcoming conference, WeAreFutureLeaders. The back end of the year is all about women in technology, which includes our WeAreTechWomen conference and our new tech awards. My personal focus for 2017 is the growth of WeAreTheCity and introducing further projects and programmes that will help working women in the pipeline to achieve their potential. I am still speaking regularly at corporate organisations, charities and schools as well as being committed to a number of boards and advisory groups. It will no doubt be another busy year, but I am excited and very much up for the challenge.
Thanks to Vanessa Vallely for making the time to write a guest blog for Energise – The Talent Liberation Company.
More:
Web site
http://www.vanessavallely.com/
LinkedIn profile
https://www.linkedin.com/in/vanessavallely/
We Are The City
Career Club
http://www.wearethecity.com/careers-club/
@WATC_Girl
Read Vanessa Vallely original guest blog part 1 for Energise. 9 January 2016
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/vanessa-vallely-guest-blog-part-1-rachel-brushfield
Read Vanessa Vallely original guest blog part 2 for Energise. 9 January 2016
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/vanessa-vallely-guest-blog-part-2-rachel-brushfield
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