The 2007 Women’s Forum is over, but this blog will remain and continue. We don’t know exactly how yet, but we are exploring options. The creation of the blog was a passionate collective adventure involving executives from the WF, tech people, mentors, sponsors, but particularly a group of twelve students from seven business schools. Most of them are non-native English speakers, and arrived in Deauville without prior blogging experience. Yet they delivered an amazing collaborative portrait of the Forum: its themes, its faces, its characters, its key moments, its atmospheres, its strong words and its soft tones are all reflected on this site in more ways than we could expect, in texts and pictures. It was a genuine pleasure to meet them and “coach” their enthusiasm, creativity and engagement. More from them will be added here in the coming days, as they will reflect on their experience at the Forum

But for now, let’s just thank them for their passionate work, and wish them success. Here they are, gathered at the Deauville beach before heading back to their schools. From the left, standing: Louis Chenard (ESSEC), Alix de Poix (member of the WF Board), Gersende Piganeau (coordinator of the students group), Coralie Prin (ESSEC), Manasi Ramanna (London Business School), Joysy John (London Business School), Bonnie Fong (INSEAD), Ivonne Arciniega (IESE), Annachiara Torciano (Stockholm School of Economics), Margit Trollnas (Stockholm School of Economics), Camilla Quental (HEC), Bruno Giussani (coach/editor of the group). Front: Natiq Shamim (Stockholm School of Economics), Jonathan Citadelle (ESSEC) and Bruno Vinay (COO of the WF). (Photo Mario Farinato)

We asked the WF participants about trust — see these two previous posts. But what about us? What does trust mean to the WF bloggers?

“Trust is believing that something you think is true.. is true.” - Margit

“I don’t trust anybody don’t ask me” - Coralie

“Trust is the bond that keeps people together” – Manasi

“The relationship you build between you and people. It is the basis of all relationships to me.” - Camilla

“Trust is confidence and be aware of the other and expect the other to be aware about you.” – Ivonne

“Feeling that  are shared values with somebody.” - Annachiara

“Confidence without fear” - Bonnie

“Honoring your commitments” - Natiq

“ Trust is believing in another person, taking a chance and seeing their potential”– Joysy

“Trust is the cornerstone of human relations. Trust is such a subjective notion that it requires the most personal feelings” – Louis

“Trust has to be something pretty like a personal demanding state of mind.” – Jonathan

“Trusting someone is knowing you can rely on that person, on his honesty or competencies.” – Gersende

by Alix de Poix

Tree blue fishes and nine pink fishes in the same pond, creating nearly from scratch the Women’s Forum’s first live blog! Here comes to Deauville the third student’s delegation, the bloggers of the Women’s Forum 2007. Were only missing our two friends from North America, due to climate (travel) difficulties. Diversity of gender, colour, religion, nationality, age, the team is definitely representative of the Forum.

Four ‘nannies’: Alix, Barbara and the two Brunos, with Orange support and last year student’s delegation representative, Gersende, to set the brief: Authorisation given to go everywhere, nearly no control on their creativity, Simple rules given: respect of the individuals and transparency of the information.

And watch what has happened!

We gave them our trust and they enacted it, getting all the interviews they wanted to have.

They are both hard workers and smiling; smiling to one another, and smiling to life. Talented, but modest, still dreaming and already acting

Behind the surface, rock dancing teacher, singer, writer, non for profit activist, etc. Like cats, they have multiple life and talents and do not need to go to a second life experience to experiment new avenues and live their dreams. “How can you change the world, if you go linear?” said one of them.

They are the kids we all like to adopt – of course our own kids are the best - but with an extended family view, they are most welcome, in my tribe, or in your’s.

And if I replace, if we replace, the word adopt by the word mentor, all of us have a role there!

It is our responsibility to transmit to the next generation our values and our experiences. It is also an honor and a privilege to be in contact with that generation. Mentoring is a win-win fulfillment, for the taker and for the giver!

It is not a nice to do but a need to do; it reinforces the brick and mortar of what we call Civilisation and contributes to its sustainability.

It is maintaining a chain and a continuum. It is putting humanity on the word evolution, it is accepting to share with them, it is accepting to give up parcels of our power, and if we start doing it on an individual basis, maybe one day, we can hope to be able to do it on a more global basis, on a country basis, enabling the diminution of the divide between the north and the south, the well off with the without anything.

Or: A missing writer, and a young chinese MBA student standing in.

Yesterday at the afternoon tea time, the writer and journalist Irène Frain wanted to provide us with a sociological reading of Xiaolu Guo’s Village of stone (shortlisted for The Independent “Best Foreign Fiction Prize” 2005, and nominated for the Dublin International Literature Award (IMPAC) 2006).

Unfortunetely the novelist gave it a miss. A session less during the forum? Do not even think about it: for women (and all the more so as they are mighty women) do not get used to submitting to fate. So Irene Frain has a quick look outside the smart and affluent-looking “author’s corner”, she sees a dynamic chinese student having her way to the bar, and invites her to join the assembly. She pushes our perfect chinese candidate into the dark intellectual room, so far away (mentally I mean) from the bar with the petit-fours and the so sexy tiny pink champagne bottle created for us …euh I mean for the event.

The upset ambitious girl suddenly felt pushed on stage, in front of the women smilingly waiting for the renowned novelist.

That’s when it became clear to me that, even here, there was deep respect and reverence face to the artistic stuff. It rejoiced me, but there was more than that. The student did the sociological analysis thing by answering the snobbish but actually accurate questions she was being asked (and translated). She has lived both in Hong Kong and in the UK. She is now taking a MBA program at INSEAD. We learned that she considered herself as belonging definitely to the Asia area even if she confessed of feeling a foreigner when traveling now to HK and even more when attending in Beijing (clearly even less British). She talked about her cultural meeting with French people and Fontainebleau (nobody dares question whether that Fontainebleau or the INSEAD campus is at any level representative for the French spirit or reality) but it was really instructive to look at ourselves through her eyes. She quite simply make things clear about values in China vs. Western countries, and how she did not really feel at home anywhere. And above all without being the least troubled from that.

We all were eventually amazingly fond of what that little woman, however partly a Westerner, was telling us about ourselves. We did sociology, and pretty good one. We mentally went away. We talked about fundamental stuff. We talked about what really matters in such a forum: meeting the other with his or her specific experience that can be very valuable. That was an incredibly magical time to hear in that broadly superficial place an ambitious and determined young shark (sorry Bonnie, but it is a compliment) talking about how Chinese values were important to her.

Bonnie — yes, the Chinese student is one of our bloggers, Bonnie Fong — will probably tell about her experience of jumping in for the missing novelist in an upcoming post.

This year, the Women’s Forum welcomes a delegation of 15 students, both men and women, coming from all over the world to live together this unique event and share their vision.

Last year, at the 2006 Women’s Forum, we were 18 students from 12 different countries who were given this unique opportunity.
It was amazing to meet each other; women students from all around the world, who were in many ways very different, but at the same time so alike in their concerns and their hopes.
It was amazing to meet women in top management and decision making positions, who shared with us their experiences and provided us with invaluable advices and guidance. It has also been a unique platform for us, to enrich the discussions and debates with the young generation’s perspective and to voice young women’s issues and aspirations.
We are very grateful for the inspiration which we brought back from the 2006 Women’s Forum. It has given us new ideas and built up new confidence. It has encouraged us to think “out of the box” and to start to act, to make changes, at our level; in the societies we live in.

The 2006 Forum has inspired us as women, and still today we acknowledge the richness and the impact these 4 days had in our lives.
I have no doubt this 2007 Women’s Forum will be as inspiring and uplifting for the coming student delegation, and I look forward to being part of it!