Call for mentors to join the Women in MICE Mentorship and Development Initiative

After a difficult year for the live events and business tourism sectors, The Planner Guru together with Queen Ramotsehoa, executive coach at the Tsheto Leadership and Coaching Academy, are calling all women mentors-in-the-making in the meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions space to join the Women in MICE Mentorship and Development Initiative programme.

“Every mentor needs a mentor.”

Open to all women within MICE, the initiative seeks to equip mentors of tomorrow with intrapersonal skills that are relevant to the challenges of the now.

“Every mentor needs a mentor. You cannot teach someone something if you do not believe in it yourself and through our programme, mentors of tomorrow can learn how to be an open and willing lifelong learning candidate, and understand what it means to be a mentor by experiencing being mentored,” says Queen Ramotsehoa.

The pilot will kick off from the end of September and also make allowance for social distancing by running the programme online.

“While we still have some way to go until the end of lockdown, this pandemic has taught us that strong leadership during times of crisis is key. In order to support the MICE industry, we are determined to give back in a way that is the differentiator between surviving and thriving.”

Through the Women in MICE Mentorship Initiative, candidates will learn how resilience is an all-encompassing quality that could not be relevant to where we find ourselves. Mentors will come away from the programme having learnt the following:

• Step 1: The ability to stop, take stock, and acknowledge the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on you, your family and your business/job
• Step 2: Resolve to stand up, dust yourself off and get back on track, or start a new path
• Step 3: Confirm direction and destination
• Step 4: Confirm what you need to succeed, including what you have and where you need help
• Step 5: Put your plan on paper
• Step 6: Implement

Commenting on this, Shanna Jacobsen, editor of Meetings magazine, organisers of the Women in MICE Awards and founders of the initiative, said: “While we still have some way to go until the end of lockdown, this pandemic has taught us that strong leadership during times of crisis is key. In order to support the MICE industry, we are determined to give back in a way that is the differentiator between surviving and thriving.”

To find out how you can join the programme, please contact Shanna Jacobsen on shanna.jacobsen@3smedia.co.za or +27 (0)79 884 6939.