"Engaging men" starts with our own partners!

04 July 2017

PWN Paris first Garden Party @Le Stade français

I believe this was a first!

Definitely a first time for PWN Paris to organize a Garden party with husbands, partners, best friends, the men we share our lives with.

Yes, PWN program “Engaging men” started several years ago and most events whenever open to all, welcome men. Most of our programs including our Executive program are open to men. Even the book “Diversity - When Men Engage” is actively Engaging men.

Several times we’ve asked our members to come along with their boss, colleague, husband, brother or friend to awareness programs and round tables, but never before we dared dedicating an event to networking with our spouses.

After a quick round of other networks, my understanding is that no other women’s network before launched formal invitations to their members’ spouses. It was therefore definitely a FIRST.
Who can be, should be, or is already, the best supporter of a professional woman? Why not Engaging our men as allied and have them speak up for equality whenever necessary?
Considering the time spent as volunteers and being involved as VPs, we’ve spent hours together for months or years discussing, working on projects, preparing events, becoming friends, but it was the first time that we met each other’s spouse.

For this first time, about 30% partners came (+30 men out of 95 participants), which is a big success when we consider that there are usually no more than 10-20% men, if any, at most gender equality events. Several non-members and partners, like Virginie T., also attended. 

The accompanying male wondered where they were going and were not quite sure of what to expect. Several confessed to be happy to put a face on names they had been hearing of for years. Some were anxious. (I wonder, are women anxious too when they accompany their husbands to professional dinners?).
There is no doubt that many of us, and them, were excited to discover this wonderful location of La Faisanderie at the Stade Français, the nicest country house near Paris, thanks to Corinne Albert, who is a member.

Luckily, the weather was nice, and La Faisanderie welcomed us very nicely with DG, Juliette Lardans, and President of the Board, XX; the early guests had a guided tour by Muriel Mornard, business relations for Stade Français and dinner was managed by Khadija El Farissi, newly in charge of catering through her company ABEvents and many gifts offered for the lottery.
In addition, Christiane Brouta and her Group the Circle Songs enchanted the audience with their African songs and XX entertained us with playful ice-breakers.
The tables were nicely organized by Corinne Albert and Virginie Améaume and 11 VP members or members of the Events team were captain, in charge of their table.

One sure thing, the challenge of this first Garden party became a huge success; everybody had a great time and is looking forward to the next round.
A first …. and a last then, since this was the last event of my second mandate as VP Events, after 7 years of volunteering in the team. It is time for me to step down and I am proud of the achievements, of the many beautiful networking events we have offered to our members.

I wish to thank the members who showed up at our events, especially the regular ones; the Board members, it was an honor and a lot of fun to share a vision for the future of this network; and most of all the Events team, and Carole and Karine, thank you for your support, time and good work. You all know that the adventure will continue in great hands with Corinne, since for the past 2 years she’s been the thinking head of our most innovative and successful events. 


Emmanuelle Scelles
Ex PWN Paris VP Events, and Head of CSR at Group Human Resources, BNP Paribas
@emmascelles
 


Les Circles Song    Christianebrouta@gmail.com
Stade Français         http://www.stadefrancais.com/la-faisanderie
 

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