Womenalia’s Inspiration Day was impressive again this year and achieved its purpose.
María Gómez del Pozuelo’s fantastic team has once again organised a top-level event in Madrid, one of those events that leave their mark on you for the rest of the year, that inspire you and move you to do things differently.
Inspiration thanks to:
Relatable, well-told stories, mainly from women who have reached positions of great responsibility, such as Rosa García, CEO of SIEMENS Spain, Pilar Jericó, Chair of Be Up, Margarita Álvarez, Marketing and Communications Director at Adecco, and Blanca Gómez, Human Resources Director at Microsoft. The main aim of all these talks is to tell other women “you can do it too”.
Stories of struggle and self-motivation, like those told last year by athletes such as Teresa Perales, the Paralympic swimmer who has won 22 medals, or this year by someone I was already a big fan of, Amaya Valdemoro, the best Spanish basketball player of all time.
We also heard the story of Albert Bosch, an adventurer and entrepreneur at the same time, the first Spaniard to make a solo crossing of Antarctica to the South Pole.
Great entrepreneurs’ stories. A special chapter, in which I loved the stories of how the Room Mate hotel brand was born and grew big thanks to its founder, Kike Sarasola.
The life of Amuda Goueli is amazing: from a small village in Africa to creating the real giant that Destinia.com is today. And finally, the most tend
er, authentic and fun business adventure of Marta Álvarez Quintero of Granja Maruxa and her little cows.
Also on this panel was perhaps the person who got the most media attention this year for her tremendous fight: I mean Sister Lucía, whom everyone calls the 2.0 nun.
Networking thanks to:
The perfect setting, once again choosing the Circo PRICE, where there’s a large reception area in which you can easily spot someone you know or a speaker you’d like to say hello to, thanks to the AgoraNews TV set or the photocall.
The coffee breaks, lunch and closing cocktail in the outdoor stand area, where you can meet a good number of exhibiting companies with interesting offers for attendees and, once again, keep saying hello and meeting new people. This year it was packed, with more than 1,400 participants.
And as Blanca Gómez, HR Director at Microsoft, said, one of the key things that helped her reach the position she holds was networking: maintaining and looking after her network of professional contacts, and keeping an eye on the moves and opportunities it brought.
If you missed it this year and the year before, don’t worry: Agoranews recorded and streamed everything.
If you want to watch Inspiration Day 2014, I recommend you also sign up to Womenalia while you’re at it, to keep on networking.
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