Some of the West of England’s most inspiring businesswomen will share their experiences in the latest series of Phenomenal Women talks staged by Bath’s Gainsborough Hotel.
Now in its third year, the series aims to celebrate, support and inspire. Each event is delivered by a high-profile woman who has innovated in her field and achieved widespread recognition. 
The speakers, who this year range from the founder of a group turning around the lives of dissatisfied young people to an environmental campaigner, and from an influential digital content creator to a microfinance charity pioneer, will talk about the obstacles and lessons they have experienced on their route to success before answering questions.
The 2020 series, which begins next week on Thursday evening, is again supported by Bath Business News and Business West, the region’s largest business support and lobbying group.
Guests are each event network over prosecco and canapés, before hearing from one of the ‘phenomenal women’. After the talk there is a chance to meet the speaker and enjoy more networking in the five-star Gainsborough Bath Spa’s elegant surroundings.
Lined up so far for the Phenomenal Women 2020 programme are:
January 23 – Eva Hamilton MBE: CEO & founder or Key4Life
Eva has worked for 34 years with some of the most marginalised groups in the UK. She co-founded the veterans’ charity ‘The Warrior Programme’, helped launch the ‘ready for work’ programme, Business Action on Homelessness at Business in the Community. This was rolled-out across 23 cities and formed part of HRH The Prince of Wales’ ‘Seeing is Believing’ programme which takes top business leaders into inner cities. She says Key4Life, which is based in Butleigh, Somerset, is the most exciting and life-changing programme she has been involved with, turning around the lives of some of the most disaffected young people in Britain.
March 26 – Jessica Siggers: Digital content creator
A social media community manager and photographer as well as a digital content creator, Jess helped launch an Instagram community for fellow Bristolian photographers – IGers Bristol– working with the Bristol tourism board and local businesses to promote Bristol’s photography to a global audience. She then began receiving offers of content creation work from the likes of Pret a Manger, Farrow & Ball, Canon, 02 & Toyota and was featured by the BBC, Time Out, The Chromologist, The Guardian and Mollie Makes magazine. Following a couple of years in the travel sector creating content for BMI, Hilton, National Express, Visit Britain and Mercure Hotels among others, Jess has returned to focussing on her true love – Bristol – and is now an ambassador for Destination Bristol and Bristol Social Media Week.
May 7 – Vashti Seth: Microfinance campaigner & founder of Deki
Vashti is an award-winning social entrepreneur, visionary and global changemaker with a passion for using business to create positive change. Inspired by a Tibetan refugee, she founded Deki, a pioneering charity that was the first microfinance crowd funding website in the UK. The Bristol-based charity has changed the lives of more than 60,000 people and currently works in five African countries. After eight years as CEO, Vashti now sits on the board of trustees. Vashti has won numerous awards, such as Bristol and Bath’s Business Woman of the Year, the IOD’s Third Sector Director of the Year and she has received Honorary MBA from the University of West of England (UWE) for her commitment to community and entrepreneurship.
June 18 – Natalie Fee: Environmentalist & founder of City to Sea
Natalie is an award-winning environmentalist, author, speaker and founder of City to Sea, a UK-based organisation running campaigns to stop plastic pollution at source. In 2018 she was listed as one of the UK’s ‘50 New Radicals’ by The Observer/Nesta and in the same year UWE awarded her the Honorary Degree of Doctor of Science in recognition of her campaign work. She won the Sheila McKechnie Award for Environmental Justice in 2017 for City to Sea’s #SwitchtheStick campaign. Her latest book, How to Save the World for Free, was released last October.
July 8 – Sado Jirde: Director of Black South West Network
Since the moment of her appointment as director, Sado has been working on raising BSWN’s profile to a leading organisation in addressing race equality and socio-economic systemic barriers to inclusion through high-level stakeholder engagement, including the Bristol Mayor’s Office, Local Enterprise Partnership, the universities and others. In doing so, she has been instrumental in the reshaping of the BAME voluntary sector through the introduction of pioneering development infrastructure to maximise under-utilised assets and build social enterprises capacity. For the past five years, Sado has worked towards the development of a placed-based approach to inclusive economic growth, culminating in the design of a BAME Enterprise Hub that features in Bristol City Council’s Inclusive and Sustainable Economic Growth Strategy.
Tickets for each talk in the series. which takes its name from the poem Phenomenal Woman by US poet Maya Angelou, cost £15 and include prosecco and canapés on arrival. Click here to book.
The multi award-winning five-star, 99-room Gainsborough Hotel opened four years ago. It was the first UK hotel to be opened by YTL Hotels, part of the giant Malaysian YTL conglomerate that also owns Bath-based Wessex Water.
