The Idea- April 2007
The idea to create a women only business network first came about in April 2007, we had noticed that there are an increasing number of women in senior managerial, managerial and entrepreneurial positions in this part of Dorset. Whilst there were a number of networking opportunities and business clubs available, we did not know of any which were purely for business and professional women. So believing that this initiative would be an important and worthwhile development our plans to create a professional woman's network began.
Firstly we grouped together names of all the women we knew through our working contacts, and wrote to them in order to gain some opinions and feedback on our idea of launching such a network. We wrote to just under 100 professional women and asked:
- Would you be interested in a women only network of this kind?
- Do you believe it would be advantageous to your business and career to engage in a women's only network?
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If the answer to 1 and 2 is yes, then would you like to see the following as part of this network?
- An annual local conference of high level speakers and workshops.
- Quarterly meetings to address local interest issues, both ‘serious' and ‘fun' in nature.
- Breakfast, lunch or early evening meetings on particular themes.
The response to this letter was overwhelmingly positive and so at a brainstorming lunch in July the ‘South and West Dorset Professional Women's Network' was born.
The Launch- September 2007
The official launch of the network took place on the 26th September 2007, as part of Open4Business fortnight, at the prestigious Moonfleet Manor in Weymouth. You can read more about our guest speaker and the success of the event in the ‘Launch Event' section here.
Continued Growth in 2009
Our initial aim was to cover Weymouth and Portland, Dorchester, Swanage, Purbeck, Bridport, Beaminster and Lyme Regis, as well as the more rural parts of the county. However as the network has evolved we have attracted members from all across the county and are now open to members from the whole of Dorset hence a change in name to the more appropriate ‘Enterprising Women Dorset’.
As of the 10th August 2009 we have over 75 members and are signing more at each event.
