Page 8 - BPW-UK - E-news - Edition 115 - September 2023 - BINDED_Neat

Why Young BPW is so relevant

At BPW International Congress in 1985, the idea was mooted to sponsor young
career women to attend the event. Two years later, BPW International founded a
“Young Career Women” (YCW) Task Force and soon the Young BPW Fund became
active. The YCW concept would ultimately evolve into the global Young BPW we see
today and we are delighted to see the impact being made by our Young BPW UK
Coordinator and BPW Vice President Yasmin Knight.
But Yasmin needs more Young BPW members and wants to promote the career
-advancing, life-changing opportunities offered by the Young BPW programme in the
UK, Europe and internationally, so I’d like to share my experience and hope to go on
to mentor Young BPW members within a structured mentoring programme run by
BPW UK, as is the case in BPW Italy and BPW Hong Kong, for example.

Back in 1994, Norma Huddy was President of BPW UK and Sylvia Perry was
Regional Coordinator, BPW Europe. As the founder of a start-up telephone interpret-
ing service for truck drivers (www.3ls.uk), I was very proud to be the first Young
Career Woman for BPW UK, noting that there were two equal sides to the YCW Pro-
gramme, which underpin today’s Young BPW activities:

Education and self-improvement
Contributing to BPW and the wider community.
I was also fortunate enough to win the first MacLaren Award which funded my
attendance as a Young BPW member at the VII BPW European Conference in Vienna
in 1994. As Yasmin also knows, having received funding to attend her first BPW
European Conference, these events immediately demonstrate the relevance of BPW
on the local, national and international stages.

Vienna was life-changing for me as an entrepreneur because I saw the interna-
tional reach and potential of BPW as an organisation, offering tremendous exposure
to different cultures and perspectives (and potential clients). As well as transform-
ing my professional outlook, I wanted to share my discoveries with others. This was
before the internet and emails had become tools of our trade, so communication
between BPW and YCW members was via phone, letter, fax and modem(!)

I addressed the Vienna Conference in French, describing how nascent commu-
nication technology was enabling freelance translators to work from home while car-
ing for their young families or older relatives. It also enabled those with disabilities
to access the profession.

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