The Women's Forum bloggers

I've spent the last three days at the 2007 Women’s Forum in Deauville, France, coaching a group of students in charge of writing the conference's official blog. The event just ended; the blog will remain and continue, although we don't know exactly how yet.

The creation of the blog was a passionate collective adventure involving executives from the WF, tech people, mentors, sponsors, but particularly twelve students from seven business schools. Most of them are non-native English speakers, and arrived in Deauville without prior blogging experience. Yet after a crash-course they delivered an amazing collaborative portrait of the Forum: its themes, its faces, its characters, its key moments, its atmospheres, its strong words and its soft tones are all reflected on the blog in more ways than we could expect, in texts and pictures. I tried to stick to minimally-invasive editing, so the blog truly reflects their own voices and viewpoints. It was a genuine pleasure to meet them and “coach” their enthusiasm, creativity and engagement.

Here they are, gathered at the Deauville beach before heading back to their schools. From the left, standing: Louis Chenard (ESSEC), Alix de Poix (member of the WF Board), Gersende Piganeau (coordinator of the students group), Coralie Prin (ESSEC), Manasi Ramanna (London Business School), Joysy John (London Business School), Bonnie Fong (INSEAD), Ivonne Arciniega (IESE), Annachiara Torciano (Stockholm School of Economics), Margit Trollnas (Stockholm School of Economics), Camilla Quental (HEC), and myself. Front: Natiq Shamim (Stockholm School of Economics), Jonathan Citadelle (ESSEC) and Bruno Vinay (COO of the WF). Thank you all! (Photo Mario Farinato)