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EWMD Coming of Age

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Dear EWMD-Members

This year has not only seen the 25th Anniversary of EWMD International but also the Swiss chapter celebrated its coming of age, leaving the teens to become twenty and Austria now ventures well into its teen years, with confidence and style.

Christa van Winsen and International Chairwoman Nicole Meissner enjoy the ferris wheel looking over Linz

Lake Zürich

The Swiss celebration took place on 11th September

After a refreshing aperol on the sunlit terrace overlooking the calm, majestic Lake Zürich and soaking in the wonderful surroundings we made our way to listen to the podium discussion in Hotel Züricherberg, where Swiss EWMD Chairwoman, Christine Raemy-Dirks made a moving speech looking back over the last 20 (and more) years of the existence of EWMD.

She painted a vivid picture and new interpretation of what being a European Woman in Management Development EWMD really means: success oriented, feminine, courageous and dynamic! All characteristics which were then transmitted during the top quality panel discussion

The discussion was skillfully moderated by the talented Dr. Elefteria Xekalakis Matthys who captured our attention from the very beginning and showed us exactly why she is Head of Corporate Communications for Helsana, with the way she so lightly steered the discussion and enticed the most inspiring statements from the highly distinguished panel participants comprising:

Charlotte Gubler member of the executive management and head of

Division Communications und Human Resources, Swiss Re

Antoinette Hunziker-Ebneter

CEO and founding partner, vice president of the administrative advisory board of Forma Futura Invest AG, Zürich

Prof. Dr. oec. publ. Sita Mazumder form the University of Luzern and the Institute for Financial Services Zug IFZ

Elisabeth Michel-Alder EMA Human Potential Development, Founding member of EWMD Switzerland

After the discussion there was no doubt of the success oriented, feminine, courageous and dynamic features of all present in the room! And this was not only demonstrated during the discussion, but later during the delicious gala dinner and of course on the dance floor. A thoroughly inspiring and enjoyable evening was had by all – including our International Chairwoman, Nicole Meissner.

To view the photos of the evening go to the following link

http://www.kodakgallery.de/ShareLanding.action?c=3h0s0m7m9.1jijtjvtd&x=0&y=-ils1y6&localeid=de_DE

Moving on to EWMD International's dynamic teenage sister ...

The 15th anniversary of EWMD Austria was celebrated in style on 18/19 September in the 2009 Cultural Captital of Linz in Upper Austria. The EWMD members and guests who came from near and far were able to enjoy and be inspired by two days (and nights) of vivid presentations, lively discussion pictures of the past and visions of the future of the development of European Women in Managment.

The celebrations got off to a fabulous start with an extraordinary EWMD Herway discussion podium with Dr. Christine Haiden, Dr. Johanna Rachinger, Dr. Ingrid Rauchberger (the founding member in Austria) and Dipl.Ing. Tina Reisenbichler (Austria’s new National Chairwoman) moderated by EWMD Vienna member Dr. Gertraud Leimüller. Answers to our leading question of how the successes of the last 15 years of the network can remain visible and what measures are needed to carry on supporting women to the top of the career ladder were also given by our star guest the acclaimed researcher, Dr. Helene Karmasin , who emphasised the importance of networks such as EWMD and the mutual help and friendship the members of an association can give each other to really reach for the top in the 21st century.

Women have to be versatile and agile, such as the dancer Silke Grabinger demonstrated in her impressive dance performance. Women have to network and share success with each other and yet remain authentic and stick to their roots, remembering not to lose some sense of humour along the way as we were reminded be the ex-clown doctor and stand up comedian Michael Trybek. The cultural programme was also electryifing when we looked down on Linz from the giddy heights of a beautiful ferris wheel placed on top of the OK museum, followed by a guided tour of some of the moving artistic contributions to Linz09, the impressions of which were washed down by a special EWMD cocktail.

The days of discussion were crowned by a night of dancing to live music played by the band ”Five in Love“ and the most delicious gala buffet. Whether you were hungry for discussion or dinner there was plenty of food for body and soul.

EWMD Austria as a young network for women in management positions, has really established itself and grown up to be a confident teenager ready to go onto the next steps of maturity and adulthood. Since this top quality and inspiring weekend we can really look forward to some new interesting faces in all our regional groups. Congratulations to Karin Weilguny, Chairwoman of EWMD Linz and her dynamic team involved in the organisation of this memorable event, which will go down in history and herstory as it was so professionally recorded with written documentation including a top class report by Karin Haas , filmed interviews by Sonja Stieber and the following photographs.