tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-41295400697761955112011-11-28T00:49:38.496ZBehind the scenes musings and more from Foluke Akinlose, the editor of Precious, the award winning magazine, network and resource for women of colour, www.preciousonline.co.ukfoluke@precioushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05240595996458057397noreply@blogger.comBlogger251100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4129540069776195511.post-38549918016355361202010-08-18T19:41:00.004+01:002010-08-18T20:02:17.426+01:00

And we're off. Preparation for The Precious Awards 2010 has begun (well it began a few months ago to be truthful!) As always I'm looking forward to it very much. I may be biased but its always a lovely, inspiring and positive evening.We have had a fantastic 3 years working with Pearson plc, who we'll continue to work with on other projects, and we are delighted to be working with our new

foluke@precioushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05240595996458057397noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4129540069776195511.post-90172269110068973442010-03-20T20:03:00.007Z2010-03-20T20:48:06.865Z

I'm very, very excited about the Precious Write Out event this Thursday, where we'll be celebrating female writers and getting published!Our confirmed and quite brilliant line up is: authors - Gemma Weekes, Caroline Bell Foster, Sophia Acheampong alongside Rebecca Weekes, co- founder of The Literary Consultancy.We're honoured to have as our chair, the prolific writer/author Bernardine Evaristo.

foluke@precioushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05240595996458057397noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4129540069776195511.post-4433828734390336712010-01-27T01:46:00.008Z2010-01-27T02:16:10.708Z

If you have been reading Precious over the last few months, then you'll know that we have been searching for an emerging young writer to take part in our first three month Arts Critic Programme.The programme gives two people the opportunity to see and critque a range of theatre work in London and attempt to explore the cultural context of art reviewing. We're also offering some decent mentoring

foluke@precioushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05240595996458057397noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4129540069776195511.post-59991502433788840942010-01-27T01:05:00.002Z2010-01-27T01:43:24.947Z

Well what an interesting start to 2010 for me. I have been honoured with an MBE in the 2010 New Years Honours List. To say that I am staggered by this would be a vast understatement, its been a few weeks since the call came from through and I'm still finding it very weird.I founded Precious a decade ago because I had a genuine passion to profile the achivements of women of colour. It's been a

foluke@precioushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05240595996458057397noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4129540069776195511.post-84531104055449021852009-11-28T19:40:00.011Z2009-11-28T21:12:27.163Z

'It was the best one yet'...that's how our sponsors summed up the 2009 Precious Awards, sponsored by Pearson plc, which took place on November 16.We had asked our guests to 'dress up' (cryptic huh?) but they truly did us proud as finalists and guests arrived in an array of beautiful dresses and stunning shoes. Our co-host Rasheed Ogunlaru even wore a silver suit!The first part of the evening bore

foluke@precioushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05240595996458057397noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4129540069776195511.post-66242858270005184372009-07-29T19:34:00.002+01:002009-07-29T19:49:08.430+01:00

I've been a major fan of Big Brother from the start, I even went to Tom's (from BB1) eviction) but even I have to concede that it's time for BB to disappear from our screens - at least for a bit.It's just plain boring now; everyone seems to have stopped trying, in particular the producers of the show. There are barely any tasks, the housemates are just plain uninteresting - apart from Marcus who

foluke@precioushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05240595996458057397noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4129540069776195511.post-77216275270590901172009-07-05T21:26:00.004+01:002009-07-05T21:48:40.297+01:00

It's that time of year already, I can hardly belive it, I'm really excited that the Precious Awards 2009 have launched. www.preciousawards.com Bring on those brilliant female entrepreneurs of colour!It's great that we are working with Pearson again (our lovely headline sponsors) and we're being supported by our partners at the British Library too. We've also secured another great line-up of

foluke@precioushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05240595996458057397noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4129540069776195511.post-90466084877533787752008-12-30T16:07:00.006Z2008-12-30T16:36:12.815Z

I was delighted to be named as one of Courvoisier's “The Future 500” a list of the country's top achievers across ten wide-ranging categories. Whats more I was chuffed to be named as one of the top 100 'Ones to Watch' one of the few women of colour in the list. The full list of 500 was published the Observer newspaper and Courvoisier hosted a spectacular party for the Future 500 at The House of

foluke@precioushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05240595996458057397noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4129540069776195511.post-15437613195050196712008-12-01T02:06:00.004Z2008-12-01T02:16:40.792Z

Oh what a night! The 2008 Precious Awards was an evening to saviour and I'm still reeling from the positivity and warmth this night of celebrating some of the UK's top Black and Asian female entrepreneurs produced. Our hosts for the evening were Hannah Pool, Guardian writer and author and Rasheed Ogunlaru, the Precious business coach, who opened the event with messages of support from David

foluke@precioushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05240595996458057397noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4129540069776195511.post-87176180546570777242008-09-04T21:39:00.006+01:002008-09-04T21:51:27.158+01:00

Things are looking great for this year's Precious Awards; we have some great sponsors, a lovely venue and some special judges including Sonita Alleyne, CEO of cross-platform production company Somethin' Else(which is the largest independent radio producer in the UK and a top ten producer of TV entertainment) and Marcia Williams, Head of Diversity at the UK Film Council.Once again, it was really

foluke@precioushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05240595996458057397noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4129540069776195511.post-25890524480865060542008-07-04T21:03:00.006+01:002008-07-04T23:06:01.400+01:00

At Precious HQ, we've just launched a social networking aspect to the main site: The Precious Network. Why? Well, we've had lots of requests from our members, asking how they can connect with each other online and we always try to do as our members ask!New launches are always exciting, but no matter how big or small the venture, there are always those niggling worries. In this case they were, in

foluke@precioushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05240595996458057397noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4129540069776195511.post-62149378728630961342008-05-31T19:47:00.006+01:002008-06-02T23:01:09.254+01:00

This year marks two important dates for women’s suffrage in the UK. The 90th anniversary of women over 30 getting the right to vote and the 80th anniversary of women getting the vote aged 21 on a par with menIt was with this in mind that I attended an event hosted by Harriet Harman, the Minister for Women and Equality, to launch a new taskforce to help more women of colour to become councillors,

foluke@precioushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05240595996458057397noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4129540069776195511.post-2264549609910080402008-05-15T15:51:00.003+01:002008-05-15T15:59:51.562+01:00

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

foluke@precioushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05240595996458057397noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4129540069776195511.post-74180774586905487002008-05-08T14:19:00.004+01:002008-05-08T15:32:16.029+01:00

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

foluke@precioushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05240595996458057397noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4129540069776195511.post-36832004752800805822008-05-03T22:19:00.004+01:002008-05-03T22:32:16.290+01:00

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(

foluke@precioushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05240595996458057397noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4129540069776195511.post-22804046923003883192008-04-15T01:19:00.002+01:002008-04-15T01:26:59.308+01:00

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.

foluke@precioushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05240595996458057397noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4129540069776195511.post-48502229860600906562008-04-15T00:53:00.003+01:002008-04-15T01:19:09.726+01:00

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(

foluke@precioushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05240595996458057397noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4129540069776195511.post-10262736560500682462008-04-03T19:32:00.009+01:002008-04-03T20:28:31.136+01:00

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

foluke@precioushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05240595996458057397noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4129540069776195511.post-58297478104994292642008-03-19T15:02:00.006Z2008-03-20T13:19:59.791Z

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

foluke@precioushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05240595996458057397noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4129540069776195511.post-15023704579654800032008-03-17T16:53:00.004Z2008-03-17T17:37:51.783Z

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

foluke@precioushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05240595996458057397noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4129540069776195511.post-10188651795942400332008-03-12T17:58:00.005Z2008-03-12T18:08:40.743Z

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

foluke@precioushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05240595996458057397noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4129540069776195511.post-64166469129245543502008-03-09T19:02:00.006Z2008-03-09T21:19:35.878Z

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

foluke@precioushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05240595996458057397noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4129540069776195511.post-14387450428789029542008-03-02T18:58:00.002Z2008-03-02T21:13:58.742Z

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.

foluke@precioushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05240595996458057397noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4129540069776195511.post-42377054816980309202008-03-01T14:57:00.008Z2008-03-01T16:43:53.965Z

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

foluke@precioushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05240595996458057397noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4129540069776195511.post-82850616963575665602008-02-29T18:57:00.001Z2008-03-01T15:42:17.973Z

Wow this is it. After months of meetings, discussions, planning, rewriting, image sourcing its finally here - the new look Precious!I’m really excited and I hope you like it too. As always we welcome your feedback so tell me what you think by emailing me at editor@preciousonline.co.uk.I have to admit that one of the toughest things I’ve had to learn as a business owner is letting go, standing

foluke@precioushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05240595996458057397noreply@blogger.com0