WISH South East: The Power of Collaboration

WISH South East have welcomed six new board members to our team who come from various different companies such as public sector contractors, solicitors and recruitment. It has been great to gain more creativity and ideas for events, knowledge and connections to promote and encourage new women and men to join in with our informative and fun events! We have also had a promotion within the team with one of our previous board members, Josie Lee, taking on a more senior role as Vice Chair, we look forward to seeing her blossom in this position.

We kicked off the start of 2026 events with a relevant talk of Health, Wellbeing & Small Changes in February this was held at Moat's offices in Dartford, we had a nutritionist speaker Elizabeth Freeman. It was really interesting to get some further knowledge of some of the day to day vitamins and supplements we may use and also on food groups we eat, the benefits of each one and small changes we can implement to have a healthier lifestyle.

Many of the women and men who attended had lots of questions for Elizabeth which made it an impactful and very interactive session. Once the talk had finished we all had the pleasure of pottery painting some coasters, with tea, healthy treats and networking with new and familiar faces. This was a great opportunity for women and men across the region to invest in themselves by taking tips and information to make those small changes to have a healthier lifestyle.

Our second event of the year was held in March at Ruxley Garden Centre where we had a talk on the changes of the Procurement Act and why it matters. We had specialised speakers on this from Faithorn Farrell Timms who also kindly sponsored this event. Karen and Lee gave an informative talk on procurement processes that may affect some of us who work in the public sector, explaining that The Procurement Act provides housing organisations with a framework to use their purchasing power more strategically, helping to promote gender equality, economic participation, and inclusive growth within housing and related industries.

Whilst having discussions on this we all got to enjoy some cakes and sandwiches for afternoon tea and the talk was then followed by a quiz at the end with some very generous prizes of vouchers for the garden centre for those who answered correctly! Everyone was able to gain the knowledge of the new updates on the Procurement Act as well as share their own experiences of working in this field.

We had the pleasure of holding The Procurement Act event on the week of International Women’s Day where we were able to do a small closing speech on this and why it is so important to us at WISH. This was then followed on with a picture of us all united and some networking discussing how far we have come and will continue to go with the power and collaboration of women across the world, we feel positive and privileged to be able to celebrate this day but also want to work on achieving more for women across the board.

We want to not only give to gain but also invest in ourselves! What a better way to do it by meeting up with likeminded individuals who can empower one another and encourage to make further changes.

WISH Southeast look forward to delivering many more successful and relevant events this year! Some of the upcoming events we have coming up are:

• Networking in Brighton
• Social Value
• Fire & Safety
• Xmas Networking & Quiz

Be wonderful to see you there!

Many thanks from the WISH South East Board x

Want to join a future event? Visit our regional page for upcoming events, and make sure you are a member to get free event tickets, coaching sessions and more!