Editor’s comment: I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but this week I’ve been especially smug. More smug than I look in the photo that accompanies these words every week. But smug in a good way. Proud. Really proud. Proud of me, proud of EG, proud of you, and particularly proud of 12 very special women.
This week saw the culmination of our first Future Leaders project. A project we launched in the summer with Ginger Public Speaking to take 12 women from every corner of the built environment through a gruelling training programme.
These were 12 women who readily admitted that at their first training session with Ginger they were terrified standing up in front of each other to talk about themselves for two minutes.
This week they stood in front of hundreds of people in a packed auditorium and delivered 10-minute speeches with no notes. No cards with prompts on. No PowerPoint presentation with presenter notes on. They stood up, just them with bright lights shining in their faces, and delivered 12 of the most powerful, funny, educational, important and heartfelt speeches to a massive crowd.
And they all nailed it.
It was a truly unique event. The culmination of this programme, but the start of something much bigger, keep your eyes peeled for the launch of our next EG Future Leaders project soon.
These women moved the dial. People actually listened to what they had to say. The audience actually saw them up on stage. They actually took something away with them that night. How often, truthfully, can we say we come away from an industry event inspired, pepped up and wanting to make a difference?
Those of you who know me will know that I’m not what could be described as a softie, but at the EG Future Female Leaders event it took all of my might not to shed a tear or two. I was so overwhelmed by the journey these women had been on and by the journey the industry chose to come on with them. So many of you committed to come to listen, to see and to support. It meant something. You moved the dial just as much as they did. And that is why I am feeling proud. So very proud.
At EG we are committed to creating conversations about the human elements of the business of real estate. Our Future Leaders project seeks to give voices to those in your businesses who have something valid and powerful to say (that’s pretty much everyone, by the way), our Sustainability Hub aims to help industry value the planet just as powerfully as it does profit, and this week we launch a mental health project, a project that aims to help reduce the stigma around mental ill health and highlight the huge role that the built environment can have in creating places and spaces where we as individuals can thrive and excel and bring our mental A game to every aspect of our lives.
Buying, selling, building, designing, funding and leasing buildings is what real estate does. What real estate is, is people. It is the more than one million people who are directly employed in the real estate sector in the UK and it is the billions of people in the world who live, work and play in the places the industry creates every day.
Understanding the needs, wants and functions of human beings should be what real estate does. And the industry is now firmly on that journey. Get that purpose right, and as wiser people than me have said, the profit will follow.
To send feedback, e-mail samantha.mcclary@egi.co.uk or tweet @samanthamcclary or @estatesgazette
