Dear Members,

This summer, we have solicited you to get a snapshot of how you feel within the network and collect your feedback. 

We wish to thank all of those who took the time to reply. Your feedback is very precious to us. The level of response to the survey was below our expectations ; nevertheless we have collected very interesting insights. We are sharing them with you as well as the actions we are taking to address your needs. 

Most respondents are in their forties working in the corporate sector. And very interesting is that nearly half of them are (or have been) volunteering in the network. We would like to take this occasion to deeply thank all our volunteers who invest so much time and efforts to make PWN Paris what it is!

PWN Paris image is globally very positive, even though a good number of respondents feel that we could do better to increase our external visibility and to improve our internal communication, seen as somewhat confusing. 

Current membership package (reasonable membership fee and financial contribution for events) is considered as satisfactory; the entire spectrum of PWN Paris events is overall well appreciated. We are sincerely thrilled by this feedback.

Another take away is your appetite for closer links with the Global network. 

Bearing in mind we want to continuously seek improvements and bring PWN Paris to the next level, we have launched a number of activities throughout 2019 that will continue in 2020 that aim at tackling most of the concerns raised in the results, i.e. Communication, International, and widening of the member base for more diversity (younger members, male members) .

Starting with communication: we share your view that it has to be improved. This is why since earlier this year we have a dedicated team under the responsibility of Anna Zgadzaj, VP Communications, who already reinforced our presence on social media. You can indeed follow us and relay our posts on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram. Since then, new editorial content is published on a weekly basis  to present upcoming events and in the monthly newsletter where  you can discover in the section “Lady of the Month” diverse portrays of members showcasing their career; highlights of recent events or communication from our partners. Many other projects are in the pipeline to improve and streamline of our communication. 

One big element of our communication improvement plan is our website. We are conscious that the current platform is not sufficiently user friendly and generates some frustrations. We are glad to inform you that PWN Paris is actively involved in the global website/platform improvement project that is managed by PWN Global. We aim to have a new system up and running in 2020. 

Since its inception, PWN has a strong international DNA. To reinforce it, we launched last October 2019 a new program called “International Hub” which aims to propose cross-cultural dedicated activities. 

Regarding the links with Global, we launched  city trips to visit and meet other PWN chapters’ members. The most recent one was organised in April in Bucharest, Romania. In 2020, we plan to take you to Rome and Barcelona. Last October, the Gender Leadership Awards ceremony, successfully organised by PWN Global, gathered in Dublin about 200 members and corporate partners across PWN city networks. Cross-chapters activities (webinars, international mentoring…) are being organised by the new Board of PWN Global. And do not forget: you are part of a global community and have access to the global directory anytime giving you the possibility to connect with any of the 4000 PWN members across all 30 city networks. Also, whenever you travel in cities where PWN is present, you are welcome to join local events.

The third pillar of our action is to ensure a diverse member base (age, nationality, sector, gender). For PWN, achieving gender balanced leadership calls for preparing tomorrow’s leaders. This is why we think it is important to nurture the intergenerational character of the network and are working on attracting younger members. So, we are launching a new program targeted at Young Talents, relevant for millennials who are the managers and entrepreneurs of tomorrow. 

In line with the opening of the network to men, willing to act side by side with us in favour of more balanced leadership, we organised in October the first gender balance workshop attended by 50% men and 50% women. During this session, we exchanged ideas on male and female actions to foster women’s career leadership and more inclusive companies. These ideas will guide us in building programmes and we will build on our relations with men ambassadors of gender balance to foster our actions in this field. 

Finally we have decided that 2020 will be the year of « Talents and Gender Balance ». This theme will be the thread of our action leading to the annual congress in June. 

We of course stand ready to answer any question you may have on the results of the survey and would gladly receive your ideas for making 2020 a great year for PWN Paris!

Respectfully yours,