International Women's Day by Hannah Bourne.

Last night I attended a great event hosted by CIM to coincide with International Women's Day. I took my seat alongside fellow female marketeers and listened to three inspiring speakers. First up was Polly Cochrane, Marketing Director for Channel Four, who shared the company vision to 'be first, make trouble and inspire change' - a worthy sentiment. She shared an impressive case study of the launch of Skins - a new programme aimed at 16-24 year olds - and told how through innovative marketing they had attracted 250,000 users to the www.channel four.com/skins website and had more than 20,000 friends on Myspace. I was left feeling inspired at the power of social networking but also feared that without advertising (which here at the Make Your Mark campaign we don't do) we could never hope to reach that number of young people (but we'll try!).

Next up was Tamara Gillan, founder of SPF15 - 'the mindset marketing company'. She set up her agency two years ago and said that the journey to being your own boss was not for the faint hearted. One of her key tips was to market, market, market and network which she certainly did tonight - after the panel discussion she was in very high demand by fellow networkers. When I finally caught up with her she was keen to take up an offer of becoming a Girls! Make Your Mark ambassador, in order to use her experiences to inspire other women to start their own business. And she certainly wasn't afraid of people connecting with her - her business card was in every delegate’s goody bag! 

Last but not least was Daniel Nabbaro, CEO of www.figleaves.com, which is now the second biggest lingerie website in the world. His story of becoming his own boss was one which should be shared and learnt from. In short his first business was very successful and he had the option of retiring at a very early age. Business two flopped big-time (!) and business three was figleaves.com. Success can follow failure! He says he isn't a gambler but that he is a risk-taker, and that America is much more understanding of failure than we Brits.

Upon giving me his business card he said that he prefers people to phone him and that email is overused - a sentiment which I've sure many share but few practice. In fact I read an opinion piece in the Guardian earlier this week by a freelance journalist who ‘gave up’ email. He put an auto reply on his email saying I no longer use email -please phone or send me a letter instead. Whilst it was liberating he admits that he now has an 'emergency account' for his freelance work. It seems few of us can break free from the clutches of digtal technology and the connections it brings us - and indeed few would actively choose to.

Hannah - PR & Marketing Manager, Make Your Mark campaign (hannah@enterpriseinsight.co.uk)