October was the month for women

Looking back on 2018 so far, for me personally, October has been Women’s Month. There’s been the International Day of the Girl Child (October 11) and I finished off the month by attending Women Mean Business Live on October 31, a conference powered by a UK newspaper, The Telegraph.

The day before, I attended an event hosted by Womankind Worldwide, one of my charity partners whose gala committee I sit on. We discussed the ways in which to strengthen women’s movements and how to work with partners. The event was sponsored by a law firm, Weil Gotshal & Manges, and we had a very articulate speaker from Zimbabwe on livefeed.

They are working really hard over there, and I look forward to working more with Nigerian partners to drive social justice and change for women. Attending these events drives me to initiate more live events (ideally powered by media houses with the support of sponsors and partners) as a much-needed disruption. As a “post-digital” necessity to bring back the human touch to the table, during an age where human attention spans are shortening, primarily due to social media.

Which brings me to the next reason that made October the month that I have invested most in women (meaning so much of my time!): Wellness Month. This took place in Lagos, and was cleverly engineered by Lucia, Suchita and Towun (across). I really enjoyed supporting this initiative and even though I wasn’t in Lagos to attend a yoga class, I learned about was behind the need for more yoga in Lagos in the first place: stress, ever-increasing pressures to perform and provide, and a volatile economy. I really do hope that Health & Wellness is here to stay because we need it. Please let’s all pay attention to our health and self-care, because as they say, you first have to put on your own oxygen mask before helping others with theirs.

The final takeaway from my busiest month this year is the concept of Collaboration. Both Lucia and Towun mentioned it in their interviews. We really must help and support each other, gone are the days of working in isolation.

There are many mutually beneficially goals to be achieved, with the various parties having something valuable to bring to the table. So, Collaboration is my word of October, and coincidentally, I was also offered a new role this week as Principal Consultant at Impeccable Collaboration, founded by Carl Loof. Here’s to working better together.