Eyestorm
AMPLIFYING WOMEN’S VOICES TO CREATE LASTING CHANGE
As a woman running her own business, every now and then your battery needs a recharge from the energy generated by a room full of amazing women.
Last week, I felt that energy at the Future Women Summit 2024 at Lighthouse in Brighton. Organised by EyeStorm Women, the event was a day of inspiration and motivation (and at moments, high emotion).
EyeStorm Women was founded as a visibility training programme for women in 2018, and has gone from strength to strength to become an award-winning community, offering confidence training and gender equality events, like the Summit.
SUMMIT MISSION
The purpose of the Future Women Summit was to bring out the positive aspects of a gender equal future, and draw up a picture of how that could – and should – look for women, rather than just complaining about what’s wrong.
“Where Conversation takes Action” was the subheading, and it felt like everyone was truly engaged, inspired and ready to take action from the get-go.
Notes were taken, wisdom exchanged, ideas were formed and everything was added to the Summit Action plan, to be released to the public soon.
With a mixture of speakers, topics and workshops, everyone walked away with a feeling of being part of the movement, inspired and engaged with a community that is ready to send the ripples of gender equality across the globe.
Women speakers across the generations
MC and Community Manager Linz Creates opened the event and handed the mic to the Wise Owl of EyeStorm, Helen Guinness, who declined the mic and spoke from her heart about the progress the women’s liberation movements have made in the last 100 years. Still a lot to be done!
We were then honoured to meet two young women from BACA, The Brighton Aldridge Community Academy, who forged a generational bond spanning 7 generations on the day. Shahad Ali, an incredibly mature 15-year-old, spoke about the Sexualisation of Young Women in Clothing – a passionate and eloquent talk, and I have a feeling we will see more of her. Her fellow student Africa Colino Martinez spoke about The lack of Gender Representation in Magazines, and we saw an equally passionate young woman share her fears, hopes and goals in a short statement, bound to open up more opportunities for her. What brave and confident young women, this is what we need more of in the future!
Mi Elfverson, Founder of EyeStorm Women and The Vlog Academy, shared a powerful video (see above) on the latest UK gender statistics and why we collectively need to work harder on all levels to reach equality as soon as possible.
Next up was an interactive Health & Wellbeing session with Alison Wilkins from Brighton Wellbeing and Lara Williams from Momentum4. The dynamic pair got us reflecting on the steps we need to take to improve our overall health – from gut to mental and emotional.
I recently did an eye-opening Generative AI course with Brighton-based Simpler with AI so was pleased to see Mary Kemp, co-founder, encouraging the audience to embrace AI. Mary’s message was AI is a democratising technology for women and gives us parity in the often male-dominated world of IT.
NatWest’s Abbie Collins was next up, and gave a really humbling talk about her rise from local branch worker to a regional director, showing incredible resilience to climb the corporate ladder along the way.
Fun and inspiring workshops
After the morning speakers we all divided into Workshop groups. We could choose between ‘AI with Mary Kemp, Simpler with AI’, ‘Imposter syndrome and Leadership with Abbie Collins of NatWest’, ‘Public Speaking with Mi Elfverson’, ‘Reducing your Carbon Footprint with Alex Pearson of The Yurt Academy’ and the young women got a mentoring session with Shahina O’Mahoney.
Those of us who had ordered lunch got a lovely vegan and gluten-free chilli bowl and cake from the Real Junk Project – Yum! And we were ready for the afternoon workshops.
Now you could choose more lifestyle-oriented sessions, such as ‘Comedy with Linz Creates and Dani Cooper’, ‘Sustainable Fashion with Jo-Anne Gooden of RubyLab and Jules Hau’, ‘Tea Blending with Bird&Blend Teas’ and ‘Videoblogging with Mi Elfverson of The Vlog Academy’.
From workshops back into the room and next on the programme was the Sustainable Fashion Show Case with Sophia Lorimer of FineTuned Wardrobe and four of the women modelling.
The clothes were already their own, they had been asked to wear what made them feel great, and Sophia asked the background to the items, colours and fit, showing that we don’t need to buy a new glitter dress for each occasion, we can spruce up what we already have.
Last but not least was the comedy finale, with Mermaid, Author and Comedian Lorelei Mathias. A tragicomic performance with singing, videos and information on what living, working and dating with ADHD is like – which was creative, clever and hilarious.
The day finished with applause, cheers and heartfelt thanks – we left with our batteries charged and focused on the task ahead – to take responsibility for shaping our futures.
Thank you EyeStorm Women for a fantastic day!
By pen:
Rose Bundock is the Founder of Femsights®, Audience insights powering femtech and women’s healthcare success and a speaker on PMDD
Rose has been a member of the EyeStorm Women community for two years.
She’s an EyeStorm Speaker Alumni and Strategy Consultant.