Wholesale’s top female bosses and up-and-coming talent attended the inaugural Women in Wholesale conference recently.
The all-female delegates, 60% of whom were wholesalers, attended the educational networking conference, including representatives from Booker, Bidvest, Bestway, JJ Food Service, Palmer & Harvey, Country Range, Today’s Group, Confex and more.
The Federation of Wholesale Distributors (FWD) announced on the day a target of 50% of its training grants going to women by 2018 to support the progression of women in wholesale. CEO of FWD, James Bielby said, “We are in favour of positive discrimination in an industry which should attract, encourage, promote and invest in talented and committed people, regardless of gender.”
Event organiser Elit Rowland said, “It’s an unbelievably exciting time to be a woman working in wholesale and a woman working in any industry for that matter. Our speakers provided delegates with some inspiring, actionable advice. The next step is to produce a Women in Wholesale report, which will give businesses solid goals to benchmark against.”
Early feedback has been very positive. Gilly Hunt, marketing manager at Confex said, “I found WiW engaging and inspiring and believe that the event will continue to grow. Greater awareness will result in more women working to gain more responsible positions.”
Julie Burden, marketing director at Savage & Whitten said, “All of the speakers were excellent and I learned a lot. I certainly feel very motivated as I return to the office this morning! I would definitely recommend my colleagues to attend the WiW 2017.” Rebecca Hirst, assistant purchasing manager at Fairway Foodservice said, “I found the conference very inspiring! I’ve realised that there are many differences between men and women in business and I’ve promised to put myself forward for opportunities more often.”
To reserve your place at the next event or enquire about sponsorship opportunities, please contact: elitrowland@newerapr.co.uk; 07956 030 804.
WOMEN IN WHOLESALE
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