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?

Precious Women in Publishing event

Wow! What a great night the Precious/Pearson event turned out to be. Although I love bringing women together to meet and network, I can't say that organising events is my fave thing to do! The attention to detail, watching as ticket bookings go up, choosing venues, food and drinl selections...it just involves so much. One of the things I am working on is bringing our own events organiser onto the Precious team.

Anyway, back to the event, Hannah and Bernardine were just excellent. Open, approachable and helpful from the start. We were delighted to get a world exclusive too; the very first reading of Bernardine's new book There were lots of great questions from our audience of budding writers and networking that went on for a long while after the event should have closed. Precious women eh? We love to talk....

Random - Great Theatre

On Monday,I was invited to the press night of a new play at The Royal Court Theatre in Sloane Square. The play is called Random, its written by Debbie Tucker Green and stars Nadine Marshall.
If you go to see one piece of theatre this year, make sure its this, if only to catch a stunning, and at times moving performance by Marshall.
Tucker Green is one heck of a talent, her dialogue flows like poetry, and her observations are canny. More please!

Yes I know...sorry

I know, I know; it says Foluke's daily view on the tin, and here I am, a few days in and I haven't posted for a while.

I am genuinely excited about having an opportunity to really 'write' again but sometimes life and business just gets in the way.

The launch of the new look Precious site has seen lots of exciting opportunities come our way and its been proposal writing and meetings galore ever since. And now after promising my family that I would cut down on the networking (y'know, just to have an illusion of a work life balance) and spend at least one evening a week at home this month, my diary seems to be chocca...again.

Anyway, this is my solemn promise to update these missives on a regular basis with proper news from behind the scenes of our online magazine...it just might not be everyday, ok?

Celebrating Mums

So how did you celebrate Mother's Day?

Sadly, (for me) my mum is soaking up the sun in Nigeria at the moment, taking a few months out to spend time with her mum, my granny!

So it was via a translantic phone call that I sent my love and thanks to her this Mothering Sunday. I miss her very much.

Hannah Pool and Bernardine Evaristo - International Womens Month event

As well as the launch of the new website, something else the Precious team is excited about is our forthcoming International Women's Month event on March 13.

I have been an admirer of Hannah Pool's for ages. I used to buy the Guardian at weekends specifically to read her black beauty column, The New Black. After sitting next to her at last years British Book Awards (we were both guests of the Arts Council decibel team) I began plotting (yes plotting!) a way for Precious to work with her.

I'd recently re-read her book,My Father's Daughter, when it occurred to me that this years International Women's Day should be about celebrating women of colour and the written word. I'm delighted to say that when I approached Hannah to speak, she was immediately positive and keen to take part.

Similarly Bernardine Evaristo; Precious interviewed her about 7 years ago and its brilliant to see that she has now become one of the UK's most prolific female writers. We are even more chuffed that she can join us, as she is flying out to China the very next day.

It's all shaping up to be a really good evening. We still have a few tickets left so why not come and join us:http://www.preciousiwm.eventbrite.com/