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| Avril Owton MBE voted one of the Top 100 Most Influential Women in Hospitality, Leisure, Travel and Tourism 2011 |
On Thursday March 31st I attended the Women 1st Top 100 Most Influential Women in Hospitality, Leisure, Travel and Tourism and Shine Awards at the fabulous newly refurbished Savoy Hotel in London. Women 1st was launched in 2009 by Cherie Blair and is an initiative from People 1st, the sector skills council for hospitality, leisure travel and tourism to address the lack of women being represented in senior positions. Since its launch it has provided opportunities for over 400 women to undertake tailored development training and to provide mentoring to support them in their career. The event was attended by 250 people and was all about celebrating the success and achievement of women in the industry and launching the inaugural Top 100 Most Influential Women in Hospitality, Leisure,Travel and Tourism and recognising the impact and influence women have throughout the industry. The champagne reception gave us all a chance to chat and catch up with friends and colleagues. The atmosphere was electric and everyone was buzzing with excitement not knowing who were going to be on the list or win the Shine awards. Dinner was served in the River Room and we all waited with baited breath to hear the results.One by one the names and photos of the Top 100 women appeared on the big screen and I can't tell you how excited and thrilled I was when I saw my name and realised I had been voted one of The Top 100 Most Influential Women in Hospitality along with Delia Smith, Nigella Lawson, Prue Leith and many others. It is such an honour to be recognised amongst so many high profile women. There was only one thing for it but to have more champagne! Following a delicious 3 course dinner the Shine Awards were presented. The event was compared by Gaby Roslin, one of the country's most popular television presenters who was most entertaining and very natural. You can see all the results including the winners of the Shine Awards celebrating outstanding achievements by women on www.people1st.co.uk/women1st
It was a great night full of inspirational women and I will continue to try and motivate young women to reach their full potential. Don't forget to follow everywoman's Modern Muse website.
The Cloud Hotel is now on Face Book and you can keep up to date with all the news, events and special offers. I'm desperately trying to get as good as my young grandchildren on the computer, I have a long way to go but with the help of Karl Jones of KN Media Limited I am improving my skills.
I always say that business is like dance and you can never stand still so I accepted an invitation from Emma James from Tasty Marketing and Stephen Burge of BH1 Promotions to attend a workshop about Lumpy Mail! Lumpy Mail is an American idea and quite fascinating and if any of you are interested in finding out about it look at http://www.lumpymail.com/ and contact Emma or Stephen for more information I think you will find it very interesting.
I hope to see some of you at the next Wessex Women's Network meeting on April 27th when we are having a talk about the monarchy by Jake Simpkin two days before the Royal Wedding. Even if the monarchy doesn't interest you it gives you an opportunity to meet like minded women to share ideas and have fun over dinner. Spring is here and with the lighter evenings on the way I hope I will see some of you who do not like driving in the dark during the winter months.
One of my favourite proverbs is
Just as the caterpillar thought the world was over, it became a butterfly.
The snail only reached where he was going through sheer perseverance!
Never give up!
Avril.
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