A successful Lagos soft launch

Investing In Women’s first Lagos event was a Panel and Press Conference Event followed by a Networking Lunch held at Federal Palace Hotel last Friday, December 7, 2018. It was a small event powered by Guardian Conferences & Master Classes, a strategic business unit of The Guardian which offers excellent live media events and learning and development programmes across a variety of areas of relevance that border on human, social and economic development as well as other specialist knowledge areas.

The main aim of the event was to formally introduce the brand to Nigeria and to encourage candid conversations on the situation about women’s empowerment in the country. Of course, we considered why we must and how we can encourage more individuals, companies and organisations to invest in women in Nigeria.

The second important message of the day was raised by our special expert guest speaker, Eva Barboni who flew in specially from London to join us, and who shared some comparative worldwide data about women in politics. She encouraged the audience to ponder about why Nigeria needs more women to engage in politics.

The event comprised of two panels. Panel One was about women in Health & Wellness, Law, Politics and Social Impact, sectors which I believe connect the ideals of political science to drive change in laws and policy for a social impact, and to increase our health and wellbeing in society! Sitting on that panel (in alphabetical order or the four sectors above) were: Maje Ayida, Olatowun Candide-Johnson, Eva Barboni, and Dr. Ndidi Nnoli-Edozien.

Panel Two was about Art & Design, Finance, Power & Energy and Technology as we need finances and fuel for innovation, and we mustn’t leave out the creative economies! We were joined by Jekein Lato-Unah, Binta Max-Gbinije, Thelma Osuhor, and Chiekezie Dozie  (again in alphabetical order of the four sectors above). The event culminated with the keynote interview of Eva Barboni conducted by Tundun Abiola. There is more detailed information about the credentials of our panelists here: www.investinginwomenball.com/lagos-conference

Hosting events in different cities requires me to direct the arrangements from abroad, and I am so pleased to share that this went smoothly thanks to the whole team, the wonderful panelists and my local event planner partner, Tobi Olanihun (CEO of WOWConnect) who is well-versed in bespoke experiences and delights in impact-driven events.

This event was a teaser, a snippet of what’s to come in 2019, and now we are focusing our attention once again on the Wonder Women Competition. I look forward to sharing the first set of nominees with you next week.