This is a monthly Business Roundtable Lunch which we commenced in February 2006; and today we have a pool of 30-40 women who attend these lunches regularly. The aim of this programme is to bring women executives together to share experiences, build a pool of mentors, and provide opportunities for them to give back to society, build generational bridges and create networking opportunities. In line with the above, the roundtable is strictly for women executives across board, that are positioned to mentor younger women. Ideally such women should be over 40 years of age, unless they have attained top leadership position at a faster pace and are thus qualified irrespective of age. Interestingly these women have become our pool of mentors in our developing mentoring infrastructure. The roundtable lunch holds every 1st Thursday of every month at La Scala Restaurant, MUSON Centre, Onikan between 12.30pm and 2.30pm.
•Annual Lecture Series
Topics for our Annual Lectures are offshoots of issues emanating from our annual conference or emerging national and global issues. During the Lecture Series we focus on developing areas we have identified as areas of need in women in management and business. In the past, we have had topics such as Building Business Relationships through Networking given by Mr.Chris Okeke of Okeke and Ajumogobia (a law firm); Tooting Your Own Horn given by Dr. Doyin Abiola and in 2008, we had Dr. Cecilia Ibru who spoke on Decision Making: The Power of Choice. We just concluded the 2009 Annual Lecture with the theme “Emerging Stronger from Turbulent Times”, taking into account the current global economic meltdown and its impact on businesses.
•CEO/Policy Maker Interactions
In furtherance of our vision, we hold periodic meetings with Chief Executive Officers and members of executive management to discuss and proffer solutions to the challenges that women face in the workplace. In past years we had met with several CEOs and Policy Makers to hear directly from them what they thought to be the critical challenges to women in management and business.
•Mentoring
As part of our network of programmes and commitment to the development of women's potentials, and as part of our Mentoring Infrastructure, WIMBIZ has committed to a quarterly dinner with the Mentors from our monthly Business Roundtable Lunch and Mentees with which we intend to build generational bridges and serve as an avenue for the Mentors to give back to society by teaching oncoming generations the ropes in their respective fields of endeavour.
•Campus Outreach “Winning without Compromise”
Our “Winning Without Compromise” Campus Programme Series, held twice yearly in different locations, is targeted at young female undergraduates of higher institutions of learning in Nigeria. The program's main intention is preparing female undergraduates on workplace and business issues by challenging them at an interactive session to unveil and attempt to discuss and resolve their expectations, opportunities and/or fears. The anchor persons, who are be drawn from the WIMBIZ pool of Mentors, also attempt to walk the participants through their experiences and hopefully pass onto the young women, the rules of survival in our patriarchal society. This program also serves as our tool for mentoring.
•Annual Conference
The Annual Conference is WIMBIZ's flagship event which holds November of every year attended by over 300 women.
The Conference themes over the years have been:
2002-Facing the challenges of Leadership
2003-Getting there, Staying there
2004-Crossroads, What Next?
2005-Women As agents of Change – Business Government and the Political System
2006-Women in the Economy – Driving sustainable Growth
2007-Women In Leadership
2008-Women Powering the Economy towards Vision 2020
