SPECIAL EVENT: PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT WORKSHOP

All professional women welcome whether members or guests

Wednesday, 16 November 2011, 7- 9.30 p.m.
Management Consultant and PWA President Monica Pesce presents
“How to prepare and deliver effective presentations”

You have a great business idea and a credible business plan; now you need to approach potential investors, business partners, and suppliers.

Or, you’ve launched a significant project in which you’ve invested enormous quantities of time and energy; now you’re invited to present it to an influential group of your higher-ups, colleagues and peers.

In both cases, you need to shine if you’re going to succeed in capitalizing on the opportunity!

It’s vital to identify the key information you need to communicate and then to convey it effectively in a poised manner.

This special workshop will teach you how to:

• select the significant information
• structure your presentation clearly and concisely
• get your audience’s attention
• professionally showcase your business idea and sales pitch
• identify the topics you CAN’T leave out
• avoid presentation ”don’ts”

About Monica:
Monica Pesce is Associate Partner at VVA Consulting and President of PWA Milan. As project manager for institutions including the European Commission, Italian companies and private equity funds operating in various sectors, Monica has more than 11 years of management consulting experience as well as extensive expertise in strategic thinking and go-to-market strategies.

This workshop will be limited to 12 participants. PWA members will be given priority to register through Tuesday, October 8. If space is still available, registration will then be opened to non-members.

Payment in advance is required in order to confirm your place: online with a credit card at www.europeanpwn.net, via bank transfer or in cash at the November 9 PWA Networking Aperitivo (based on availability).

Registration 6:30-7, Workshop 7-9:30 p.m
Blend Tower Business Center, Piazza 4 Novembre 7 (MM Centrale)
€30 for members, €45 for guests, includes snack break

For additional information, please contact speakers@pwa-milan.org

Radio Colonia recently interviewed PWA Milan President Monica Pesce and RFBW and Bocconi Professor Paola Profeta on the impact of quotas on our economy and society.

Listen to the interview (in Italian) here.

When you become the President of PWA Milan Board, you occupy a very “institutional role” that means working with your team to define strategies, goals and activities – and of course making things happen – but a very important part of your job is meeting people. That is also a fundamental part of my “real” job as a consultant.I find this to be one of the most stimulating parts: people are willing to meet you to share their experiences and their views, suggest improvements and new projects or activities and this continuous brainstorming is a great source of inspiration.

One of my recent meetings, that had nothing to do with PWA Milan, was a lunch with an energetic and enthusiastic friend, founder of an executive search firm. It was a source of reflection and inspiration that I would like to share with you.

We started talking about PWA while waiting for a table, and she said “You know what? You should declare somewhere – maybe even make it part of your mission – that PWA as an association is supporting the professional growth of women with the requisite skills and competencies, that when choosing an employee we will choose a woman, if we need a professional we will look for a woman, our doctor will be a woman…and so on. We all declare rationally that we support women and believe women should reach powerful positions, but are we all sure – myself included – that we are not unconsciously biased by social and cultural beliefs? This would be a powerful declaration and something concrete that would make things happen!”.

That moment of casual conversation led to my personal reflection in the subsequent days of how I relate to women when I make professional decisions.

Of course Italian law – similar to legislation in much of the world – does not allow discrimination based on gender: you cannot open your search to only women or only men. But once you have reviewed all of the resumes, will you be balanced in your judgment? Will you be biased, for example, by the fact that unconsciously women and engineering might not strike you as a “match”?

Are we sure that we as PWA Milan members and supporters, officially and rationally committed to the promotion of women are then concretely supporting women in our everyday decisions?

I honestly believe I base my decisions on merit: I work a lot with women, hire many women – I am usually the one that does the first interview in my firm, which means I make initial recommendations – get along well with women. I promote women I know and trust, both those met at PWA and through my work.

However, one thing is to support an individual who you believe has all the required skills and competencies, a different thing is to voluntarily and rationally choose a woman from two equally skilled candidates, only for the sake of supporting women!

Are we ready to commit on this? Are we willing to proactively look for the “woman option” to compare with the “man option” and possibly choose the first?

We often argue against quotas because we perceive them as unfair. We should look at ourselves and try to understand if we, as women, are the first to trust and believe in women, or do we end up boycotting women when we have the possibility to help them.

I would love to hear your stories and experiences on hiring a woman or choosing a woman as a professional to support you; discuss with you the possibility to concretely do something on this, starting by ourselves and the way we look at other women as professionals.

Monica Pesce

Il Sole 24ore on march wednesday 11, in its Job24 area, presented PWA Milan project “Ready-for-board Women”, through an interview to Monica Pesce.

The full description of the project can be read here

Read the article (in Italian) “Una classifica per le prime 100 manager“

Entering my second year as President of PWA Milan, I feel both enthusiasm for what we achieved in 2008 and the pressure to meet the expectations we have proposed for 2009. 

The first year a new board takes charge usually begins with defining goals, making smaller or bigger changes, focusing on priorities and then starting to work. Sometimes the work phase is based on a “trial and error” approach.

The second year a board is in service; it has the moral obligation to show members that its work is starting to produce results.

Let’s quickly review the goals we set forth to achieve in 2009:

• The “Ready-for-board Women” project is now a reality: you will read about it in Il Sole 24ore’s special issue on women the first week of March, and it will be presented during the Sole 24ore Forum, “Leadership al Femminile”. The most important head hunters will support this initiative – Eric Salmon & Partners, Heidrick & Struggles, Key2people and Korn Ferry – and the results will be officially presented next autumn;
• The successful series of workshops we launched last year, thanks to the support and work of our PWA coaches, will be offered again. This year our coaches will present a series of skill-building workshops based on the corporate world;
• The first series of workshops will be completed by including workshops on entrepreneurship that will range from “Idea Evaluation” to “Public Funds for Women Entrepreneurs”;
• We will co-sponsor important initiatives and events, such as the Il Sole 24ore Forum, “Leadership al Femminile” (providing a special discount for PWA Milan members) and the second “Festival del Fund Raising”
• Introduce a round of speaker meetings, entitled “Women in …”, which will offer us the opportunity to learn from leading men and women and to better understand the key issues in specific sectors. This year we will focus on Finance, Technology and Fashion
• Offer our membership the opportunity to meet with other networks and widen their contact base, for example through the special networking aperitivo with the “Made in Italy and Luxury Goods” scheduled for March 25^th.

 We have finally launched our new website with some important improvements:

• more dynamic, thanks to regular weekly posts rather than a monthly newsletter;
• more interactive, giving our members and readers the possibility to communicate and share comments, thanks to the flexibility of wordpress
• immediate possibility to share with others interesting reports, articles and tools as soon as you find them

The new website’s features and flexibility will allow those of you who are more confident with Internet and the new media to fully experience the benefits of web 2.0. For those of you who prefer the old and comfortable e-mail, we will continue to send the usual monthly newsletter which will summarize and give you direct access to the most recent articles posted.

 We strongly believe 2009 should represent a year of great achievements: we have gained the visibility we deserve and the time has come to make our voice heard. The Board alone cannot make a difference, but a network of smart, skilled and enthusiastic women supporting well-organized initiatives can achieve important goals. Today we already count more than 100 members for 2009, and the year has just begun!

Monica Pesce

PWA Milan Board President

Last years speaker event “Hugging the Bear” was a great hit and received a lot of media attention.

Monica was interviewed with regards to women managers in the workplace and what we can do to improve the situation.

Read the article “Responsabilizzazione e volontà. I motori del cambiamento” (article in Italian)

Il Sole 24ore has created “Agorà, I blog del Sole 24ore” within its website.

Anna Zavaritt is the blogger of “La revolution en rose – Perché una rinuncia è una perdita. Per tutti”, a blog that focuses on women and career and what we could/should do to make things change.

Monica was interviewed as President of PWA Milan on women and networking and the current situation of working women in Italy.

Read the interview “3 domande a…Monica Pesce” (interview in Italian)

All professional women welcome whether members or guests ——————————————————————————–
Wednesday, May 16 2007, 7-9.30 p.m.
Monica Pesce
“How great ideas can become successful businesses!”

——————————————————————————–

How can we understand if our idea has the potential to be turned into a business? Must we invest significant resources to test our idea? And what are the best techniques needed to reach our goals?

To help us answer these questions in a very practical fashion, PWA member Monica Pesce will present the most common market research techniques. She will reveal their main characteristics; identify the tools to be chosen in each situation; and divulge the expected costs. Low-budget options will also be explored and Monica will provide us with tools and tips on how to create and implement ‘market research on a shoestring’. And finally, Monica will show us how to ask the right questions so that we can really understand if our idea has potential, from how to define our marketing and sales strategies to implementing a basic business plan.

Monica Pesce has worked for 7 years as a consultant for Valdani Vicari & Associati, an Italian business consulting company specialized in strategy, marketing and sales. She has helped her clients to understand if their ideas for new products in different sectors (ranging from fashion and entertainment to food packaging) had potential; and then, how to turn them into great businesses.

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Cocktails 7-8 p.m. / Presentation 8-9.30 p.m.
Centro Svizzero, Via Palestro 2 (MM Turati; tram 1, 62, 94)
Free for members, €20 for guests, payable by cash at the event

I bumped into PWA by chance. I was surfing the web looking for information on networking, which I believe to be a useful resource for job searching.I consciously chose to work in consulting more than 6 years ago: I wanted to learn as much as possible and as quickly as possible, I wanted to change frequently, I wanted to travel, I wanted to stimulate my brain. About a year ago, I realized that I was ready for a change: to make the move from consulting to a company position. I wanted to be in charge and to make decisions. I was tired of simply suggesting and then waiting, and hoping that someone would follow my recommendations!

I was struggling to find a new job and nothing seemed to work. I was aware of the importance of relationships and I felt like I was missing a piece of the puzzle: an international environment in which to compare myself and find inspiration from different attitudes towards life, relationships, work, and open-minded people that were accustomed to dealing with change.

When I came across the PWA website, I read the contents quickly. It sounded interesting, so I decided to attend an event as a guest. It turned to be Margaret Heffernan’s speech which really electrified me. “This is great! Inspiring, ironic, dramatically real, this is exactly what I am looking for”, I thought. In front of me there was this great woman who had built up a great career while successfully overcoming challenges that all of us may encounter sooner or later. And she was still human and even making mistakes! Her message to me was: it’s tough, you’ll make the wrong choices sometimes, you’ll act badly sometimes, but if you are true to yourself and to your values you can reach your goals and change things for the better.

I joined PWA in February and now, 7 months later, I can attest to what PWA means to me and how it has influenced my professional and personal life.

My primary driver to PWA was looking for a new job. I was interested in others’ suggestions and experiences on professional improvement and career growth. I knew that in my search something wasn’t working, but I couldn’t pinpoint what – CV, past experiences, positions I was applying for? Through PWA I had the chance to meet many people – face to face as well as online – willing to help me improve my search and pushing me to think and act positively.

Once my objectives were clarified, I became very proactive and started making full use of all network resources. I visited the EuropeanPWN website a lot: I looked at the forum almost every day in particular for job postings and applied for a couple of them. It didn’t immediately lead to interviews, but I received some very good suggestions on my CV format and content. I found an advert on Monster and since a PWA member was working for them, I wrote her an e-mail asking about the position and the company itself.

Valerie Ryder suggested that I look for headhunters in the members’ directory on our website to ask for advice. I did, and my e-mails led to a chat with a headhunter that quickly turned into an interview and now might even turn into an offer. But that’s not all. As I wanted to personally contribute to the association, I recently started collaborating as a volunteer with the PWA board and met a member working in a complementary industry, which quickly turned into various concrete business opportunities.

What I really want to stress about my experience is the unqualified support I received from all the people I contacted within the PWA and EuropeanPWN. They actually helped me focus on the “what” and “where” of my search. I am looking for a BIG change and it definitely requires some serious thinking: most of the time, smart questions coming from smart people help you to define and clarify your own ideas.

My secondary – but no less important – driver to join PWA was the opportunity to meet people, women willing to grow professionally and in most cases with international backgrounds. And I did have the chance to meet a lot of interesting people: every time I attend a PWA event, I meet someone new or get to know better somebody that I’ve met previously. What I find really great is that you feel people are willing to tell their stories and experiences and listen to yours; they are willing to help and are enthusiastic about participating and making this association grow.

In the end I would say that PWA has positively influenced the way I perceive myself as a professional and as a human being, bringing new challenges and interests as well as new friends. After searching without results for some time, I was quite frankly a bit depressed. Things changed when I had the opportunity to meet people who have their own success stories to tell, a lot of good hints and lists of “dos and don’ts” to share and who are truly available and willing to help.

Even if PWA is not where I find my new job, it has certainly helped me to regain my enthusiasm and my belief that I will achieve my objectives. It’s only a matter of time and commitment.

Monica Pesce
PWA Member

Inspiring. This is how Valerie Ryder defined the W.I.N. Conference to me. My curiosity grew as I found out more: the program sounded really interesting and it would be held in Rome – an exciting location that was also easy to reach.Having done little else but work for the last six years, this couldn’t have come at a better time as I was planning to make some changes in my life. Plus, I needed to make time just for me: to think, to meet new people, to learn, to become inspired. With that in mind I signed up for the conference. It turned out to be an experience that not only changed how I looked at business but also how I relate to other women. I would like to share just some of the key learnings I brought home.

During the opening ceremony, Kristin Engvig, founder and CEO of W.I.N., shared networking tips that can be effective in all aspects of our lives:

• Be open to learn (and learn to be more open)
• Be willing to connect
• Be quick to contribute
• Be ready to help others
• Be ready to take risks
• Commit
• Be prepared to have fun and expect magic

Change was a central theme and was no better echoed than in a speech by Jordy Kool from HP in which he quoted Charles Darwin: “It is not the strongest that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the ones most responsive to change”. This is a key message for the 21st century as we, as women, have a natural aptitude for change.

I discovered how important women are in making consumer decisions. In recent years the number of wealthy women has increased dramatically in comparison with their male counterparts. Why, then, do most companies still not take into account our needs when they develop and market their products? This is an interesting issue for those among us who work for such companies: how can we persuade them that they should intelligently recognize that gender differences are relevant?

A wide variety of workshops provided invaluable opportunities to interact, exchange ideas and meet extraordinary people, including Maryann Valiulis, a bright funny woman who I like immediately and whose workshop, “Women and Ambition”, I attended. I’m confident that she and I will collaborate a great deal in the future.

The conference is an eye-opening experience that will enable you to learn new ways of doing old things and overcoming difficulties. Should you go? If you are willing to connect with other women, are prepared to give and to take and want to commit and take some risks, then it will make a difference. The exuberance and passion at W.I.N. is highly contagious.

By attending the conference I started an important journey to better understand my inclinations and priorities are. I want to grow, to focus on my future goals and improve my abilities to reach them. W.I.N. provided an inspirational setting and highly useful tools for doing just that.

I would like to close quoting something I heard during the Gala dinner. It sounds funny but still is something we should really remind ourselves more often: “Remember that there is a special place in hell for women who don’t help other women”.

 Monica Pesce