By Sienna Macfarlane (Upper Sixth)
On Thursday the 28th September, I was one of six girls from Upper Sixth students who travelled down to Kent for a conference: Inspiring Future Female Leaders. Throughout the day we were lucky enough to listen in to a range of insightful talk from Benenden alumni. This ranged from Silicon Valley angel investors to ex heads of MI5.
We started the day with a video conference live from Jordan delivered by HRH Princess Basma of Jordan who spoke to us about how to consider humanitarian causes while being a global leader. After a quick break, Dr Amy Jadesimi joined us from Nigeria and captured our attention with details of her ever-changing career path and how to succeed in A Man's World. We learnt details of how she switched from medicine to investment banking before moving to Nigeria to pursue logistics and engineering.
Following that we were quickly introduced to Dame Didi Wong, a public speaking coach who taught us an invaluable lesson on How to turn any stranger into an ally. During our lunch break we were encouraged to meet her and ask any follow up questions we had about her talk. As we were some of the first thirty-five to go, we were all in luck to receive a copy of her book to help us develop our skills more.
After a delicious lunch, former modern pentathlete from GB, Georgina Seccome (née Harland), gave us insight on how GB are using connection with each other to gain a competitive advantage over other leading nations at the Paris 2024 Olympics. Following that, Amber Atherton, creator of Made in Chelsea and a Silicon Valley tech investor gave an interview and explained to us how taking and making every opportunity had led to her being a full-time angel investor living over in the US.
To wrap up the day, we were joined by The Princess Royal and we got to hear from Baroness Manninghan-Buller, the former director general of MI5. She told us as much as she could about her job while still adhering to the official secrets act and everyone in the room were fascinated by what she had to say, by the end questions were flying. Lastly, we were honoured to have a talk from The Princess Royal on her experiences with leadership while in the public eye.
As a group we are so thankful for this experience, it was truly unforgettable and without a doubt inspiring for our futures. Thank you to everyone who gave up their time to help the event run smoothly, the speakers and Benenden School for hosting us.
