The Precious Awards 2008

I'm already looking forward to the Precious Awards which take place in November during Enterprise Week. It’s our chance to celebrate women of colour entrepreneurs, and show how women in business are really making their mark on UK plc. That's why I launched Precious; to celebrate the achievements of women of colour and the awards are a great arena to do that. There’s already been a lot of interest in the event and with a fashion show, high profile patrons, and some really exciting new categories in the offing; it looks set to be even better this year.

As many of you will know, the preparation for a ceremony of this kind starts early and over the last few weeks, have been putting the call out for sponsors and supporters for the event - getting sponsorship isn't easy, even in these days of corporations putting 'diversity at the heart of their agenda'. But in a strange kind of way I have been enjoying the process; putting together the proposal, tweaking said proposal, working with our branding specialist to make the proposal look good(thanks Rene!), the phone calls, emails, and other conversations, its all been an experience.

Since last year Precious Awards, I have been watching the progress of our winners with interest. The Precious Entrepreneur of the Year; Jessica Huie of Colorblind cards, has simply gone from strength to strength, her business has recently launched in the States and she made a confident and assured appearance as one of the experts on the BBC's Apprentice - You're Fired show a couple of weeks ago. Natasha Faith and Semhal Zemikael, the two young women behind luxury jewellery brand La Diosa, and winner of Best Start Up, stock their products in Harrods, have been profiled in Fashion bible Vogue and are being hailed as a big luxury brand of the future. I am really proud of all our winners!

I cannot wait to discover the entrepreneurial gems set to enter the awards this year; my fervent wish is that the Precious Awards truly gives them a chance to shine.

I'm so excited!

There are only a few people in the world that can get me out of bed before 7 in the morning, but Steve Moore is definitely one of them.

Steve is the director of Policy UnPlugged, he's a great guy, who really defines the meaning of a connector and he is one of the friendliest, most genuine people, I have ever come across. Anyway more about him another time, the point is that Steve sent me an invite to the launch of a new monthly breakfast event called One Morning, and I shifted myself out of bed and went along.

The premise of One Morning is that each month three individuals are given ten minutes to answer one question, fill the room with ideas and then take questions from the floor. Then there's some intense networking over breakfast and by 10.15 you are on your way back to your office, desk or laptop!

The launch question was: What happens next? (a question that I ask myself continually) and the speakers were Kevin Anderson, Blogs Editor at The Guardian, Jeremy Ettinghausen Head of Digital Publishing at Penguin and Matt Locke a Commissioning Editor for education at Channel 4.

I was drawn in from the start as I listened to Jeremy talk about the future of publishing, the promise of the first E-book and a vision of a 'book' for the future that you can listen to on your ipod, then plug into your car on your drive into work and then continue reading on line at the office. Wow!

I was intrigued by Kevin's contribution on the so-called death of newspapers, how to find the perfect online business model, citing Tech Crunch as a prime example, and how and why more and more companies are spending their advertising budget online; (great news for Precious) and I was really impressed with Matt's contribution that covered art, how young people use tools such as MSN and how it all fits in to the future of social media.

The event took me back to when I was working in the ITN New Media department about 10years ago, when the web was relatively new in the UK. I was part of a young team, who were very passionate about our work, and who were driven by being part of some truly innovative stuff. They were challenging and interesting times. We were stick in a back office, spoken of disparagingly by some of our colleagues, (I remember the ITN Royal correspondent wandering into our office muttering "What is the point of this Internet stuff anyway?") But we didn't care, we knew we were involved in something fresh, new, and exciting and as soon as everyone else in the company caught on, they would be as passionate about the web as we were...heady days indeed.

One Morning reminded me of that feeling of excitement and newness, and so, for that reason, I'll be a regular from now on

What's your recovery style?

A question for all you entrepreneurial folks out there: how do you cope with being ill? I have finally realised that my method is pretty terrible and utterly ineffective; I just ignore any illness and heroically plough on through regardless, in the mistaken belief that no-one will notice that I'm ill and I can still be as effective as ever.

Now recovering from my 3rd viral infection in 7 weeks(chest, throat, then chest again for your information) I have finally realised that being an entrepreneur does not make you invincible...and its usually best to ask for support when you are not feeling your best.

Two weeks ago at the height of my second viral infection, I decided to climb out of my sick bed and attend a high profile event at the National Portrait Gallery.

"Why are you going?" asked my sister, "you look awful...and you're sweating."
"I might meet people," I explained, "You know, contacts,.. the Precious Awards, so much to do..."

"Well, its up to you", said my sis, with an expression of pity on her face as I fell out of the front door."

My sister was right of course; I spent most of the evening trying to disguise my sniffles, and vividly remember a sea of glaring faces turning to tut as I coughed my way through Bond star, Colin Salmons' keynote speech. After an hour, I admitted defeat and made an early exit back to my sick bed, cursing myself for ever leaving the house.

I have learnt my lesson, When you are sick, it really is best to have total rest, don't turn on the laptop, turn off your mobiles... and Blackberry, reschedule meetings and take time to recover. It really is OK and your business will survive your absence.

Terminal 5

I've just been through the Terminal 5 experience at Heathrow airport. The place is a big soulless barn of a white elephant with teams of check in/bag drop counters, yet hardly any staff. My flight to Glasgow was delayed on the way there, and as the 45th minute of waiting on the runway ticked by, I thought to myself... next time I'll just get the train.

Gloria Taylor

I was beyond sad to hear about the death of Gloria Taylor. Gloria was the mother of 10 year old Damilola Taylor who was senselessly stabbed and left to die in a Peckham housing estate stairwell seven years ago.

Since her son's death, Gloria and her husband Richard had become tireless campaigners. They ran the Damilola Taylor Trust, whose work included providing medical scholarships children(Damiola dreamt of becoming a doctor) and opened the Damilola Taylor Centre, a sport and community hub in Peckham.

Watching Gloria on TV as she talked about her son and all he hoped to become, I was struck by her dignity.“We don’t want revenge, we want justice for our son,” she said, “Only after that can we forgive those who did this to Damilola.”

I doubt if I could have had the capacity to be so forgiving.

My thoughts are with the Taylor family in the UK and Nigeria. May Gloria rest in peace.

Out and About

Phew, its been a full on couple of weeks. It seems that event and launch season is now in full flow and I’m having trouble keeping up!

On Tuesday it was off to Millbank for the Channel 4 Spring/Summer press launch. (I wonder if I was the only person a tad surprised to see that they had alcohol on offer at 11am?)

The event kicked off with a man in a suit(he didn’t say who he was) bounding on to the stage announcing: “I told you last year that things were going to change” err…I wasn’t invited last year. Indeed, looking around the room, it seemed as if I was one of just two representatives from black or Asian media who had been invited this time round.

The event rolled on with a clip of some of highlights of the forthcoming spring/summer output. All the usual favourites were there, Charlotte Church back for a new show, actor Neil Morrissey starring in a new show about setting up a brewery with his mate (why?)...

During his speech, the man in the suit had proclaimed Channel 4 as the home of alternative TV. For me, as a professional black woman living in London, there was nothing alternative about this stuff. The only programme that featured more than one person of colour as the focal point was a season of programmes focusing on…you’ve guessed it…gun and knife crime. Channel 4, and indeed ITV, BBC et al, could be really alternative and feature a positive series of programmes about people of colour just going about their business. How about our contribution to UK plc as enterpreneurs? Or a series on the lives of a group of women working, living, loving, y'know like Sex and the City but with women of colour as the main rather than minor focus...

On Thursday evening I was at IBM, near the South Bank, for a reception to celebrate Global Entrepreneurship Week (GEM). GEM is a worldwide initiative that aims to bring togther young people under the banner of entreprenurship. It was a good night and I met some fascinating people. Precious have signed up to be a partner for the week and we're looking forward to working with them on this years Precious Awards.

I also met up with fellow Make Your Mark Connector, Servane Mouazan who is founder of social leadership company Ogunte and we went for a couple of drinks after the event. Servane is one of the most positive people I know and a real force to be around. We’re talking about hosting a Precious/Ogunte networking event around September so keep your eyes peeled for info on that.

On Friday, it was off to the Institute of International Visual Arts,in Shoreditch for the end of decibel party. decibel was an arts council initiative to promote black and Asian artists. I’ve done some work for the National decibel team and have to say they are a truly great bunch of people who have worked their socks of doing some innovative and interesting work with this project.
So Terry Adams, Nike Jonah and Pat Palmer, I salute you, as you all go on to even bigger and better things!!

Saturday it was off to the Vitality Show over at Olympia. I always look forward to this yearly event, for me it’s a chance to discover some new health/lifestyle content features, and see what new products are about to be launched. Sadly, this was definitely the most lacklustre show I’ve been to. Things looked grim as soon as we entered the press room. Usually the press room is pretty buzzy, journalists flitting around eating the free yogurt (it’s sponsored by Muller) drinking water and trying to negotiate taking home another bulky press bag 'for a friend.' This year there was NO YOGHURT, no water, and the only free stuff available was the rather tired looking press releases lying in a corner of the room.

Vitality used to be about promoting a healthy lifestyle and encouraging people to look after themselves via mind, body and soul. On the day that my colleague and I attended, it seemed to be purely about the BIG SELL. There was no atmosphere, a downturn on visitors, and a strange mixture of exhibitors from credit cards to tarot cards(there have always been one or two tarot readers but this year there were an abundance) and every time we hit a corner we came across yet another stall flogging yet another 'new' type of coluoured, flavoured water!

The event has lost its soul and its edge. I have no dout that very soon someone will enter this market and do it bigger and better.

A new week, another round of events. Tomorrow, I am off to a Women in Technology (WIT) event which takes place at Microsoft. WIT events are usually good fun, informative and I’ve made some great contacts there! I’ll let you know how I get on!

The Mothers of Invention 3

On Monday I attended another excellent event run by the British Library. Precious loves the British Library! They put on a great range of events(not just for entrepreneurs)and they have a lovely team of hard working people who have a real passion for the library, who pull it all together. Over the years we have developed a good relationship and we are very proud to be partners ( of the British Library that is and not the lovely team!)

Anyway back to Monday night's event; The Mothers of Invention 3 was a celebration of International Womens Month, and the chance to put questions to some of the female entrepreneurs running some of Britain's most successful businesses.

It was a real mix of a line up that sounded odd on paper but really worked in practise. Amongst the guests was Jessica Huie, founder of ethnic greeting card company, Colorblind cards, and also the 2007 Precious Entrepreneur of the Year.

Although Jess has a very high profile , it was the first time I had heard her talk about her journey. How she built up her business while juggling single parenthood with working for Max Clifford and writing a column for a magazine, its truly inspirational. She's a lovely, friendly person too!

Also on the panel was Lorraine Heggessey chief executive of talkbackThames, and Sian Roddick, owner of "erotic emporium" Coco De Mer. Sam was funny; talking about blowjobs and sex toys, while letting off the odd expletive, bought some gasps from some sections of the audience but just made me laugh. Honestly what did they expect? Don't they know what type of shop she owns?