Our Chairwoman, Ann-Maree Morrison, was asked to apply to the G20 women’s empowerment forum, Women 20 ( W20) as a result of our links to The National German Womens’ Association and Verband deutsche Unternehmerinnen (Vdu), our equivalent in Germany. Chancellor Angela Merkel, as head of the G20 this year, had asked the group to source delegates to run a working group to help gender equality and produce action points to take to the G20 in July in Hamburg. Ann-Maree applied and after vetting by the German and UK Government was selected as one of the delegates to take part. The application process was detailed about business background, why you could add to the working groups and which working group you would have specific abilities to add to. Ann-Maree selected to input into the Digital Gender Gap group and also contributed with other delegates to other took part in the Women20 Delegation to the G20 in Berlin in April.
The working group was done over the internet MangoApps forum and via webinar for the 4 months leading up to the 3 day Summit and the report for W20 was compiled by the administration group in Berlin over the entire period with input on drafts by each delegate during that time. The Summit in April was held at the Intercontinental in Berlin and included morning working groups to finalise the wording of the final report (50 pages with a 1 page executive summary). The afternoon sessions and early evening were business panels which included prominent figures like Dr. Angela Merkel, Christine Lagarde, First daughter Ivanka Trump and Christie Freeland of Canada. There were a large amount of international journalists and also protest groups against Trump so police presence was obvious and security tight. Two evenings had a cocktail party and a dinner, with dignatories present to both speak and mingle. The outcome of the group was a great report with a 1 page executive summary on action points that the G20 nations should take forward to reduce the gender gap.
You can read more on the event and the report with the main points the W20 would like to be promoted among your networks and Government representatives: W20 in Berlin