Dr. Charlyn Belluzzo (Corso Partners) Kristin Engvig (WIN) Pilar Chaparro (Bocconi) Florence Tercier Holst-Roness (Red Cross) Samia Nakhoul (Reuters)
	Prof. Mireia de las Heras (IESE) & Prof. Nuria Chincilla (IESE) & Carla Vargas Puccio (IESE)
	Marie-Josee Schoemaker (Johnson & Johnson) & Lucy Dubín (Johnson & Johnson)
	Samia Nakhoul (Reuters)
	Pilar Chaparro (Bocconi & Right Management)
	Dr Charlyn Belluzzo (Corso Partners)
	Florence Tercier Holst-Roness (International Committee of the Red Cross)
	Diana Derval (Derval Research)
	Prof. Nuria Chinchilla (IESE) & Andrea Martins (ExpatWomen)

Women’s International Networking (WIN)
Conference, Oslo, Norway

26 – 30 September 2007

Andrea Martins

Last month, I shared with you an overview of some of the most inspirational sessions from the first two days at WIN.  I am pleased to continue the story here in Part Two of the 2007 WIN Report.

Friday 28 September

Professor Nuria Chinchilla (Spanish) opened our plenary session on Friday.  Professor Chinchilla is the Director of the International Centre for Work & Family at IESE in the Universidad de Navarra, Spain.  She talked about “societal capital” and the need for “family-responsible companies based on solid values”. 

Actually, some of you might recall that Jill interviewed Professor Chinchilla about her book, Female Ambition, some months ago.  If you missed it, you can read that Interview here.

Next up was Carol Cameron, Executive VP Human Resources & External Affairs, at Shell Gas & Power.  As a woman who’s been in a typically male-dominated industry for around 20 years, this woman was a warrior.  Not only do the traits of stamina and determination come to mind, but her free-flowing knowledge of so many parts of her company’s operations showed that she really did know the pulse of her company and listening to her was very enjoyable.  Note: Shell Gas & Power is actually led by a woman!

Carol tried to paint a picture of the future, saying that today, we have about 6.5 billion people in the world.  Fast forward to the year 2050, she suggested that we would have 9 billion people in the world, using twice as much energy as we do now, but being twice as energy-efficient as we are now – using 6-10 times more energy from renewable sources.

Then came Sonia Sequeira (British), International Executive Producer at CNN.  My biggest piece of inspiration from Sonia was probably her mention of CNN’s Founder, Ted Turner, as an example of dreaming big, believing in yourself and never giving up.  You probably know the story: Ted Turner was branded “crazy” when he dreamed big and wanted to start a 24/7 news channel.  These days, Ted’s 24/7 news channel (CNN) is both a worldwide brand and the leader of the more than eighty (80) 24-hour news channels around the world!

Johnson & Johnson’s reps were next: Lucy Dubin (American), Ph.D., Director, HR & Organization Development & Marie-Josee Schoemaker (Dutch/ South African), Team Leader Customer Services Department, Global Pharmaceutical Supply Group – EMEA Janssen-Cilag International.  They shared with us some of J&J’s Human Resource initiatives, such as: bi-annual internal surveying of their 120,000 employees; tobacco-free workplaces; external childcare support (financial); Paternity leave; and more.

It was then workshop time.  There were lots to choose from.  I found myself with Professor Diana Derval (Dutch).  Professor Derval is a Professor of Marketing at the University of Wales MBA/Robert Kennedy College.  Her claim to fame is her book Wait Marketing– which was also the topic of the workshop.  The basic premise of her book is that companies should stop bothering consumers with disruptive and expensive advertisements.  Instead, they should talk to consumers when they are waiting – in a typically more receptive mode.  She ran through various successful examples of Wait Marketing, such as the free newspaper Metro on public transport, the Toyota TV campaign in doctor’s waiting rooms, the ads on petrol (gasoline) pumps, no-volume TV ads in veterinary practices etc.  It was lots of fun.

After lunch, Dr Charlyn Belluzo (American), Managing Partner of Corso Partners LLC took the stage.   She talked about “Career Success Factors”.  Her main points of note were:

Then came my favorite speaker for the day: Samia Nakhoul (Lebanese, of Palestinian origin), Deputy Editor, Political and General News, Reuters.  Samia grew up in the 16-year Lebanese civil war.  At a very young age, bomb shelters were not unfamiliar to her, as she learnt about fear, loss, grief and what extremes people will go to in order to survive. In April 2003, Samia was in the Baghdad building full of journalists that was hit by a US bomb shell.  The attack killed a fellow journalist and injured four more, including Samia, the then Reuters Bureau Chief in the Gulf.  Samia showed us the news footage of the time, where she was carried off to the hospital bleeding, with serious head injuries.  Several operations and much agony later, this amazing woman returned to work.  Yet despite her experience, to Samia’s credit, she never used the WIN platform politically and simply shared her experience in words and pictures, to show us in her very humble way, the power of passion, courage and determination. What a phenomenal woman!

Pilar Chaparro (Columbian) was next.   Pilar works at Bocconi and also as an Executive Coach for Right Management, Milan, Italy.  She talked to us about the “three toll gates for women to get through” in their leadership journey: Self-Esteem (typically lower than our male counterparts); Emotional Distance (she explained that women tend to get too friendly with staff, and so often find it difficult to discipline and fire staff when they need to); and Relationship to Power.  Believe it or not, Pilar painted a really good analogy of people to eggs!  She emphasized that whilst the white part of the egg can change shape over time, it was important that we all held tight to our yolks (ie. our “central values), so that we didn’t end up as scrambled eggs on our journeys.  Weird picture, but it worked for me!

The final speaker for the day was Florence Tercier Holst-Roness (Swiss), Women and War Advisor, International Committee for the Red Cross.  She talked a lot about Congo and how more than 3600 hospital operations had been needed to date, for women who had experienced not just rape (“a strategy of warfare with catastrophic emotional and economic consequences”), but brutal rape involving knives, cuts and fire-arms.  Florence explained that the two biggest issues that they face at the Red Cross are: convincing people who don’t “see” the problem, that it is a problem; and the general belief that the problem is too complex and thus should be avoided.  Her talk was shocking to the core and made you thankful that there are organizations like the Red Cross trying to do something about these devastating phenomena. 


Friday evening, we enjoyed a reception in the Old Town Hall and then visited the Nobel Peace Centre.  What a privilege.

Saturday 29 September

Our first speaker on Saturday was Lorella Zanardo (Itallian).  Lorella is an entrepreneur who founded Sportgate – a company endeavoring to use health and exercise strategies to achieve business success.  She juggles two children and an ethical, successful business – hats off to Lorella.

Daniel Chaffraix (French) then took to stage faced with a sea of about 700 women’s faces.  He is IBM’s  Country General Manager for France and Northwest Africa. Together with HP, IBM was a major sponsor of the WIN conference and sent many, many participants to the conference.  That in itself demonstrates these companies’ commitment to investing in women, as the whole exercise would have easily cost tens of thousands.  Daniel’s key piece of advice was to be an “initiator of change” – to “make things happen”!

Then we were treated to a performance from Jane Rivar (American), a Singer, Composer and Songwriter for her own company, Feather Moon Arts.  Jane told her story, in words and song, about running a very successful entrepreneurial venture, until she became completely exhausted and decided to dedicate her work time to helping people find the music in their own lives.   My favorite quotes from Jane were:

After another round of some great workshop options, we all met back for an Open Space Forum, facilitated by the truly inspiring Dr. Lyly Rojas (Nicaraguan), an Independent Consultant/Writer/Professor/Coach for International Organizations.  We spent nearly three hours, discussing hot topics and brainstorming ideas for next year’s forum.  Was wonderful to be part of such a dynamic process.

The official conference concluded later that evening at a 10th anniversary gala dinner. There were workshops on Sunday morning, but the majority of participants had left by then – probably all-networked out!

Final words

Congratulations to Kristin Engvig, the WIN Board and the team (including many volunteers) behind this year’s great event.  Here’s wishing WIN another ten inspiring years of women’s international networking!

Best wishes to all,

Andrea.