The Society of Bristol Business Women has a membership of over 100 business owners, consultants and senior corporate figures. We meet 5 times a year to network, learn from guest speakers, socialise and collaborate with one another.
Membership is by invitation only, and if you would like to find out more, please contact us for further details at info@societyofbristolbusinesswomen.org.uk.
Join in the conversation: please follow us for news, and member news at our LinkedIn group page here:
Update February 2023
Next event 24th March 10.30am – 1pm plus optional lunch
Following on from the successful meeting in January, courtesy of Cathy Knight and Inge Dowden revealing all about our DiSC profiles and what they mean, we are looking ahead to Spring when we will be heading outdoors.
We’re delighted to bring you this opportunity to meet like-minded women in business whilst taking care of your own wellbeing.
Take just a morning out of your schedule to join us in the lovely surroundings of Penny Brohn UK’s garden and grounds, learn about Nordic Walking and all its health benefits, then take a walk and talk with other SBBW members as we make our way down to the beautiful setting of Ham Green Lake.
We will be in the care of expert Nordic Walking instructors Katie Atkins and Emma Webb of Nordic 4 who will share their knowledge of how to take care of ourselves and any niggles we carry, as we exercise outdoors.
We’ll return to the national centre to learn from a nutrition expert from Penny Brohn UK too before further networking and the option to stay for a nutritious lunch in the Penny Brohn dining room.
Agenda
10.30am – Welcome address – Julie Kenyon
10.40am – An introduction to Nordic Walking – Katie Atkins and Emma Webb
11.55am – Refreshments and comfort break
12.05pm – Penny Brohn presentation and nutrition talk
12.25pm – grow your networking in our structured networking session
1pm – event closes with optional healthy and delicious lunch in the Penny Brohn dining room (Additional charge of £9 payable on the day).
Tickets are available now on Eventbrite and cost just £15 plus Eventbrite fee and proceeds will go to Penny Brohn UK.
Invite a friend or colleague – to make the most of our time with Katie and Emma, we’d be happy for you to bring along a guest who would also benefit from this networking/netwalking opportunity.
Make this time count for you, sign up today, we’re very much looking forward to networking in the outdoors!
Previous events
Avery’s Wine Tasting
Thursday 9th December 2021
6pm to 9pm
We are delighted to announce the final event of the year at Avery’s Wine Cellars. We will be presented with a glass of champagne on arrival and then the wonderful Frank Mason and Louise Wood – the resident wine nerds, will be helping us to appreciate 6 different wines throughout the evening. Delicious artisan bread, cheese and pate will be served too.
We have decided to “unashamedly” (a good SBBW word), go for a Christmas theme this year and we will be looking at ideas for wines over the festive period to get us ahead of the curve!
There is a maximum capacity of 70 guests and we are anticipating a well-attended event so please do not wait too long to book your tickets. These will be £35 per person this year (plus Eventbrite fee) which includes all the wine and food.
Avery’s wine cellars is a lovely, cosy venue, made even more special at Christmas time. This promises to be a very enjoyable and festive way to complete our Society of Bristol Business Women events for 2021. A note from the venue regarding Covid safety is here:
COVID-19 – We are very excited to welcome you all back to the cellars after all this time. With Covid still a serious issue around the country we want to make sure that everyone attending will be safe and comfortable. To ensure this we are asking everyone attending to take a lateral flow test within 48 hours of the event. If you are showing any symptoms, feel unwell or have tested positive for covid in the previous 10 days, please stay home and contact us as soon as possible to request a refund on your tickets. If you have purchased these tickets as a group, please make sure that everyone in your group is aware of the above requirements’.
Should the event need to transfer to virtual, we will be in touch and can assure you that Avery’s are well accustomed to hosting these occasions virtually, and we will still have lots of fun whilst adhering to the latest Covid guidelines.
We advise you arrange transport home other than driving if you can, so you can make the most of the evening, and the fine selection of wines you’ll be tasting.
Agenda
6pm – Gather for networking and announcement of next year’s special SBBW events for 2022!
6.45pm – Wine tasting commences
9pm – Wine tasting closes and further networking.
Avery’s Wine Cellars
9 Culver Street
Bristol BS1 5LD
We look forward to seeing you there, all bright and sparkly and in the festive spirit!
Book your tickets now and let’s celebrate getting back together again!!! 😀
The SBBW committee
Details of our previous events can be found here:
SBBW Charity Summer Ball
Date: Thursday 18th June 2020
Venue: The Bristol Hotel, Prince Street, Bristol, BS1 4QF
Join us on 18th June for an evening of entertainment hosted by TV’s Martin Roberts of Homes Under the Hammer.
Our chosen charity: The Martin Roberts Foundation
As business people, we care deeply about our next generation, which is why we have chosen a charity that supports carefully selected educational and well-being initiatives for children and young people. The Foundation ensures that each young person is given equal opportunities and a safe environment in which to grow up and learn.
Our aim is to raise funds to provide every year 4 primary school child in Bristol with a copy of Martin’s children’s book ‘Sadsville’ created in conjunction with the NSPCC and Childline. The book helps young people better understand their mental well-being and talks about their emotions from a young age.
During the evening we will be recognising some of their achievements by awarding Star Member and Business of the Year to two of our members.
Our incredible range of tempting auction prizes includes:
- A week in a Devon Holiday Home with hot tub and sauna
- Creative floristry workshop for 2 people
- A stay in Cadbury House Hotel with complimentary leisure facilities
- Guided brewery tour
- Plus much more
The evening will include:
- 7:00PM: welcome drinks on arrival
- 3 course meal and coffee
- Charity auction hosted by Martin Roberts
- Charity Raffle
- Live entertainment
- Disco
- Carriages at midnight
We’re delighted and excited to bring you this black-tie event so do use this as an excuse to dress to impress whilst raising funds for a great cause! Bring partners, friends, and colleagues – the more the merrier!
Book your tickets here.
The HR Department
How Did This Happen?
Thanks so much to Sue Tumelty for her captivating talk on her business journey, and insights into the latest watch words in the world of HR. We were treated to an exceptional lunch thanks to Cherry Picked Catering, and there were plenty of referrals and connections being made during our networking sessions. All in all a very successful event.
Date: 29th January 2020 11:30am – 2pm
Venue: Foot Anstey LLP, 100 Victoria Street, Bristol BS1 6HZ
Tickets: £25 including refreshments on arrival and a delicious lunch
How to scale up your business from one desk to 200+ employees
We’re pleased to invite you to our next interactive business event for the Society of Bristol Business Women. This time we are looking at a local entrepreneur’s journey from the inception of the business, the experiences along the way and then sharing tips and advice from Sue Tumelty, founder of the HR Dept.
Sue started The HR Dept in 2002, following her passion to provide outsourced HR to SMEs in the South West of England and it took off quickly. Like so many small businesses, it all started from a desk in her house. But within two years she had acquired an office, hired staff and put all the systems in place to franchise the business.
The business has never looked back. It currently has over 100 active territories, with approximately 200 qualified HR professionals delivering expert advice to more than 6,000 customers.
Sue will be joining us to speak about her incredible journey as an entrepreneur, franchisor, published author and international exporter! She will also be talking about hot HR topics currently impacting SMEs and how to prevent people problems in your business.
Agenda:
- 11.30am – Meet for refreshments and informal networking
- 12 noon – Sue Tumelty’s presentation and questions
- 12.45pm – Lunch
- 1.15pm – Structured networking
- 2pm – Close
Price:
The cost for the event will be £25 plus any Eventbrite bookings fees.
Location:
Ground Floor, Ashfords LLP, Tower Wharf,
Cheese Lane, Bristol, BS2 0JJ
Avery’s Wine Tasting – Christmas is almost here!
Date: Thursday 5th December 2019, 6pm – 9pm
Venue: Avery’s Wine Cellars, 9 Culver Street, Bristol, BS1 5LD
Tickets: These will be £37 per person (plus Eventbrite fee)
We all enjoyed an intimate wine tasting experience at Averys Wine Merchants. Hosted by 5th generation family member, Mimi Avery, and her knowledgeable team, we were subjected to two rounds of Call My Bluff Wine tasting, plus a wine quiz! It was a fun and sociable evening, in the very festive surroundings of Averys historic, vaulted cellars that once held their bottling and labelling lines.
Invitation details:
We will start with a glass of the Averys Special Cuvee Brut Champagne before moving through a tasting of 6 different wines from around the world. We will also have a selection of artisan bread, cheese and pate from local suppliers with a glass of wine to accompany the food.
There is a maximum capacity of 70 guests and we are anticipating a well-attended event so please do not wait too long to book your tickets. These will be £37 per person this year (plus Eventbrite fee) which includes all the wine and food.
Avery’s wine cellars is a lovely, cosy venue, made even more special at Christmas time. This promises to be a very enjoyable and festive way to complete our Society of Bristol Business Women events for 2019.
We advise you to arrange transport home other than driving if you can, so you can make the most of the evening, and the fine selection of wines you’ll be tasting.
Agenda
- 6pm – Gather for networking and presentation
- 6.45pm – Wine tasting commences
- 9pm – Wine tasting closes and further networking
Location:
Avery’s Wine Cellars
9 Culver Street
Bristol BS1 5LD
We look forward to seeing you there, all bright and sparkly and in the festive spirit!
Get your business into the media – A PR workshop with Becky Walsh
Thursday 26th September 2019
Ashfords LLP, Tower Wharf, Cheese Lane, Bristol, BS2 0JJ
We were all delighted to hear from Becky, and definitely inspired to give approaching the media a go.
Some successes have been reported already from 2 of our members, who have gone on to be featured on the radio – well done to them!
And thanks Becky for inspiring us all to have a go. We do have a story, there is an angle of interest – we just need to be bold and put ourselves out there!
Invitation details:
Do you fancy having ‘As seen on the BBC’ branded onto your website? Nothing creates more trust than a media expert. You might feel you have nothing to say, but the likelihood is you do. What’s more, this kind of advertising is totally free and works way better than a paid ad. This workshop will show you how to create a press release, get clear on your story or message and you will be given media contacts that suit your story. Please bring a notebook.
Becky Walsh is smart, funny and insightful.
We’re delighted to welcome Becky, an expert in personal development and communications.
Her first career was in Theatre in the West End of London having trained at The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama. This career took her all over the world working on such events as the Hong Kong handover to China.
From this Becky went into personal development. Presenting an agony aunt style phone in radio show on LBC Radio in London which enjoyed 97,000 listeners. She is the author of four self-help books including ‘You DO Know – Learning to act on intuition instantly’ which is published in four languages. She then went on to present on BBC Radio and have her own TV show ‘Anything goes with Becky Walsh’. As well as being a worldwide media pundit in personal development.
This isn’t all!
Becky is a sought-after speaker and has appeared at the world-renowned seminar ‘I can do it’, as well being a coach and script editor for TEDx speakers. Becky has a degree in Interdisciplinary Studies from California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco and is a qualified life coach.
She also writes for Huffington Post and Psychologies Magazine. Becky has her own company called ‘Ample South West’ bringing personal development classes with a range of subjects and teachers, live in person and broadcast online. Workshops in emotional resilience and emotional intelligence are delivered in businesses and at universities.
This workshop promises to be informative, entertaining and above all extremely useful to help you increase the visibility of your business.
Agenda
11am – Meet and greet, including refreshments and informal networking
11.20am – A welcome to our venue from Nicola Manclark of Ashfords
11.30am – A workshop by Becky Walsh – get your business into the media
12.30 pm – Break for lunch
1.15pm – Formal networking
2.00 pm – Event closes
Venue: Ground Floor, Ashfords LLP, Tower Wharf, Cheese Lane, Bristol, BS2 0JJ.
Nearest parking is The Galleries, Bristol.
At our last event, one of our members commented she enjoyed “Meeting like-minded women who are driven and successful”. Why not join us – you’ll meet some inspirational, friendly and passionate peers!
Tickets, available now are just £20 for this event, and include refreshments on arrival and a delicious lunch.
Summer party 2019!
4th June 5.30pm – 8pm
The Strawberry Thief, 26 Broad St, Bristol, BS1 2HG
“Interesting and passionate speaker. Made menopause relatable to all despite it being a specialist topic.”
Thanks to Lauren Chiren for guiding us through this potentially tricky topic of the menopause and creating an open, relaxed environment in which we could all listen and share our experiences and support one another.
Join us of an evening of informal networking, drinks and a talk by Lauren Chiren, executive health coach and menopause specialist.
Previously a senior transformation executive, Lauren couples her notable experience with qualifications in psychology, health and nutrition to shine a light on the impact of menopause, and drive real change in global attitude.
A trusted coach and mentor to many female executives, Lauren brings an insightful directness, commercial pragmatism and absolute passion for ensuring optimum wellbeing and resilience.
Agenda
Gather for informal networking and welcome from SBBW committee
5.30pm Arrival and a glass of Prosecco
6pm “An Insider Guide to Health, Transformation and Making Menopause Work”.
7pm Prosecco, nibbles and informal networking
8pm Event closes
We advise you arrange alternative transport other than driving if you can, so you can make the most of the evening and the lovely Prosecco being served.
If you are driving, parking is available a short walk away at either Nelson St NCP or Rupert St Car Park
The cost is £25 which includes Prosecco and nibbles, and you can book your ticket here.
We hope you can join us for this summer event and we really look forward to seeing you there.
March 21st 2019
An Audience with Sam Rowe, Bristol’s Secret Entrepreneur! (March 21st).
“I wanted to pass on my thanks to you all, and Sam, for the insightful morning yesterday. I personally found it uplifting and reassuring to hear about others experiences, and drew many parallels.”
Alex Hendrie, CityID
Event details:
This is a fabulous opportunity to hear from Sam Rowe, the CEO of Blue Flint Group and Ignition, two of Bristol’s best kept, award-winning, female-led businesses. We will give attendees a chance to ask questions in our open forum interactive networking session.
Discussing Sam’s achievements:
•Launching a business in the USA
• Successfully growing her business internationally without losing an ethical approach including focus on maintaining staffing levels and profitability
• Working with big businesses including the National Trust, Space NK and a larger pharmaceutical company which took the company to the USA
And valuable insight on:
• How to win valuable awards and close business with large organisations
• The strategy the business has adopted to take it from an events and exhibitions company, Ignition DG, to growing into experiences, a creative agency, retail and hospitality in a matter of a few years
• Sam’s plans for the future using an innovation platform for sharing ideas and knowledge
Sam did all this whilst managing a family and a house renovation!
We will then give attendees a chance to ask questions and open this to a open forum interactive networking session.
Event details:
9.00am – Welcome, refreshments and informal networking
9.45am – An introduction to our venue from Foot Anstey
9.30am – An audience with Sam Rowe
10.30am – Refreshments
11.00am – Open forum interactive networking
12.15pm – Lunch
1.00pm – Close
Venue: Foot Anstey, 12 Glass Wharf, Bristol, BS2 0FR
Closest parking is at Gardiner Haskins, just a few mins walk away.
We hope you can join us for this fabulous event where we’ll have the opportunity to learn from a true professional, and meet like-minded contacts as we network.
Tickets cost £20 plus Eventbrite fee, include lunch and are available here.
Please advise if you have any dietary requirements: email info@societyofbristolbusinesswomen.co.uk
February 8 2019
Personality Profiling with Aimee Shortman of Brand Biology.
“I thought this presentation was fabulous, I’ve thought so much about it since”
Debbie Stavely, MD of bClear Communications.
Not all people are the same. So, if you want to connect well with people, whether they are customers or employees, it helps enormously if you approach and communicate with them differently.
Personality profiling is used in many sectors, mainly at higher levels of management to increase self-awareness and boost interpersonal skills, but it is time-consuming and costly. And unfortunately we can’t make all our customers fill in a personality profiling survey – so how do we connect practically, quickly and intuitively?
Brand Biology developed a unique and highly practical observational technique called ActNatural© which provides insights into what makes people tick – including yourself. This helps you to harness the power of your own personality and intuitively understand others, to make lasting impressions and real connections!
Those who experience ActNatural© take away practical and instantly usable skills to improve their own performance and improve interpersonal skills. People say that they will never view customers, colleagues or their family in the same way again.
With over 20 years’ experience, Brand Biology has worked with organisations such as Zurich, BMW, London City Airport and Mercedes-Benz and seen the power that empowering people to harness their personality has.
We were delighted that this was such a fun, thought provoking and interactive event – thanks to Aimee and her team.
Wine tasting at Avery’s Wine Cellars
9 Culver St Bristol BS1 5LD
29th November 6 – 9pm. Back by popular demand, our pre-festive season wine tasting at Averys wine cellars in Bristol.
Book here
We will be presented with a glass of champagne on arrival and then the wonderful Mimi Avery herself will be helping us to appreciate 6 different wines throughout the evening. Delicious artisan bread, cheese and pate will be served too.
We have decided to “unashamedly” (a good SBBW word), go for a Christmas theme this year and Mimi will be looking at ideas for wines over the festive period to get us ahead of the curve!
There is a maximum capacity of 70 guests and we are anticipating a well-attended event so please do not wait too long to book your tickets. These will be £36 per person (plus Eventbrite fee) which includes all the wine, food and excellent knowledge about the drinks we’ll be sampling, shared by our host Mimi Avery.
Avery’s wine cellars is a lovely, cosy venue, made even more special at Christmas time. This promises to be a very enjoyable and festive way to complete our Society of Bristol Business Women events for 2018.
27th September – Lunch and Learn – Building Business Relationships That Last
Thanks so much to everyone who joined us yesterday at Grant Thornton for our lunch and learn event, I hope you enjoyed it. Jan Bowen-Nielsen certainly got us thinking about how we listen and communicate. Details to follow soon for our Christmas gathering at Avery’s Wine Cellars. We’ll be in touch. P.S. Please remember to fill in our survey if you haven’t done so yet – it should be in your email in box, many thanks!
12th June 2018 – Creating brand you event round-up
Well, this was our busiest meeting yet and a huge success thanks to our guest speakers Gosia and Nicky and so many in attendance. There was plenty of networking with some great conversations going on around the room, and outside on the beautiful sunlit rooftop terrace of Smith and Williamson. Thanks to everyone for coming and making this such a great occasion. We look forward to seeing you in September – see post below for more details!
If you would like to speak or run a workshop at one of our future events, we’d be pleased to hear from you, just email us with your details (info@societyofbristolbusinesswomen.org.uk) and we can take it from there
Committee members:
Julie Kenyon, Insider Marketing
Judith West, WPA
Aimee Shortman, Brand Biology
Nicki Mors, Travel Counsellors
Katerina Pippi, Scarlet House
Tiffany Beard St James’ Place Wealth Management
Data Privacy
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Refund Policy
Full refunds are available if notified up to 72 hours before an event. No refunds are available beyond 72 hours prior to the event due to commitments to caterers. Please notify us via email to info@societyofbristolbusinesswomen.org to request a refund.