The day of celebrating the power of mentoring across the UK was a great success.
As official partners we have been helping and were involved at all the stages over the last few months so I already knew the level of interest the day had created. However, it was still simply brilliant to see the level of engagement from all areas of the UK and all types of mentoring.
The day started for me with the support of the social media coverage and #nationalmentoringday ended up trending at the number 2 slot which was great. The tag is still being used for events and news.
I had been invited along with one of my mentees Ian Harris, a Director at ID security systems, to the BBC to talk about our mentoring experiences. Ian is also a mentor himself so we were able to discuss lots of areas. The BBC team were brilliant and it was a great chance to share the mentoring celebrations more widely. Ian and I developed some skills in alternative communication with scrap notes & hand gestures trying to ‘talk’ to each other whilst the headphones were on!
The day started for me with the support of the social media coverage and #nationalmentoringday ended up trending at the number 2 slot which was great. The tag is still being used for events and news.
I had been invited along with one of my mentees Ian Harris, a Director at ID security systems, to the BBC to talk about our mentoring experiences. Ian is also a mentor himself so we were able to discuss lots of areas. The BBC team were brilliant and it was a great chance to share the mentoring celebrations more widely. Ian and I developed some skills in alternative communication with scrap notes & hand gestures trying to ‘talk’ to each other whilst the headphones were on!
Interview BBC Radio Gloucester
Interview BBC Radio Northampton
Interview BBC Radio Solent
I then went into a lunch meeting at a very historic establishment to discuss with the charitable foundation there my potential work to set up and train mentors for a combined personal & enterprise mentoring programme to help its members. An interesting opportunity to make a difference and it goes to show the flexibility of mentoring as a solution to help.
Several mentoring phone calls later whilst trying to walk across London and continue the social media – not recommended as a combination as several mistypes later proved, I reached my next meeting. I was discussing the next stages of an existing mentoring programme with one of the banks. I am the ambassador for Mentorsme, the UK’s enterprise mentoring hub, and I know from my talks at SME events many people don't realise that the main banks sponsor their staff to give time to the scheme to share mentoring free of charge.
Then on to a café at Westminster to quickly have a catch up with Ian and Adam Shaw to discuss wider mentoring projects and down lots of green tea as I was by this point slightly losing my voice – not helpful with the main event to come.
On to the House of Lords. A brilliant opening by Lord Young and Chelsey Baker, then onto the panel discussions on personal mentoring. A great buzz around the room and the stories were having real impact. I had arranged for the School of Hard Knocks to attend to share their experiences of mentoring to help people who needed a fresh start in life and they were joined by Mosaic and the Careers and Enterprise Company.
Then the enterprise panel with myself, Rockstar and Lawbite. We discussed the power of mentoring, why it was needed and I also was asked to speak about the importance of training and standards. I explained the key points of the national mentoring code set up by SFEDI and how Mentorsme meant mentees could find help. The audience were really great and I met lots of interesting people who wanted a chat afterwards and who I am looking forward to staying in touch with.
The closing talk was from Helen Walby and she shared her passion and energy for how and why mentoring makes a difference.
The networking and buzz in the room continued until the very last moment. The House of Lords event closed so the after party gathering continued nearby where the mentoring stories continued.
National Mentoring Day helped more people understand how mentoring can help them as either mentor or mentee. Let's now make mentoring matter 365 days of the year - please just contact me if you would like to know more about training or setting/extending your own programme.
Several mentoring phone calls later whilst trying to walk across London and continue the social media – not recommended as a combination as several mistypes later proved, I reached my next meeting. I was discussing the next stages of an existing mentoring programme with one of the banks. I am the ambassador for Mentorsme, the UK’s enterprise mentoring hub, and I know from my talks at SME events many people don't realise that the main banks sponsor their staff to give time to the scheme to share mentoring free of charge.
Then on to a café at Westminster to quickly have a catch up with Ian and Adam Shaw to discuss wider mentoring projects and down lots of green tea as I was by this point slightly losing my voice – not helpful with the main event to come.
On to the House of Lords. A brilliant opening by Lord Young and Chelsey Baker, then onto the panel discussions on personal mentoring. A great buzz around the room and the stories were having real impact. I had arranged for the School of Hard Knocks to attend to share their experiences of mentoring to help people who needed a fresh start in life and they were joined by Mosaic and the Careers and Enterprise Company.
Then the enterprise panel with myself, Rockstar and Lawbite. We discussed the power of mentoring, why it was needed and I also was asked to speak about the importance of training and standards. I explained the key points of the national mentoring code set up by SFEDI and how Mentorsme meant mentees could find help. The audience were really great and I met lots of interesting people who wanted a chat afterwards and who I am looking forward to staying in touch with.
The closing talk was from Helen Walby and she shared her passion and energy for how and why mentoring makes a difference.
The networking and buzz in the room continued until the very last moment. The House of Lords event closed so the after party gathering continued nearby where the mentoring stories continued.
National Mentoring Day helped more people understand how mentoring can help them as either mentor or mentee. Let's now make mentoring matter 365 days of the year - please just contact me if you would like to know more about training or setting/extending your own programme.
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