1st Best national practice and experience from The Netherlands

General information

Name of the good practice:	PWN Amsterdam, Professional Women’s Network
Name of the organisations in charge:	PWN
Website of the organisation	www.pwnamsterdam.net
E-mail of the organisation	membership@pwnamsterdam.net
City	Amsterdam
Country	The Netherlands
Year	2010
Length of the project/practice	10 years
Is the project/practice ongoing?	YES
Link to the training program	www.pwnamsterdam.net
Language of the practice/program	English, Dutch

Presentation/Description of the method

PWL is a global movement of people working towards gender balanced leadership through professional development and international, cross-industry, online and in-person networking. This movement has networks in different cities of the world, which is Amsterdam one of them.

General objectives

Create Safe Networking Environments

Meet and share ideas with people from a diverse range of industries, seniority levels and geographical locations – via their online member platform, or at local face-to-face events.
Build alliances and do business together in a non-threatening, professional situations.

Help You Develop Your Knowledge and Skills

Thought leadership webinars - helping you to understand the latest concepts and theories.
Self-development webinars – building and refining your practical skills and competences.
600+ physical events, around the world, every year.
Dynamic content on the latest and greatest insights to help you advance your career.
Interactive Forums for you to discuss and debate with their global members.
Advanced global online networking as well as face-to-face local networking.
Offer volunteer opportunities – a great way for you to build your skills in a safe environment.

Give You Access to Excellent Mentoring Programs

Bespoke local mentoring program – one to one or group mentoring.
International virtual mentoring programs for senior leaders.
Invovlement in EU funded projects, such as the ME-ToTEM Mentoring project.

Inform You on Gender Balanced Leadership

Give you access to the latest research on gender balanced leadership.
Collaborate, develop and share best practices to help organizations engage men in women’s development.
Set up a network of male allies who are passionate about working together with women on collaborative leadership.

Provide Exclusive Services for Executive Leaders

They recognise that their senior, C-Suite members have very specific needs and so they offer them a global, customized programme that helps them to network with professionals of a similar seniority and boost their visibility.

Spread the Word

Continue to take PWN Global to the world by identifying the cities in which they can best serve potential members.
Build a truly global presence - working closely with their corporate sponsors to have a presence in the areas they need them to be.
Strategic partnerships with other networks and events including Women’s Forum, SAIS, WIN, JUMP, WiL, NASEBA, Global Summit, GWALS.

Why it has been selected as good practice

This practice has been selected for its global approach to achieve gender equality, where entrepreneurship and mentoring are two very important axes. They aim to create a community to ensure that 100% of the potential of the world's inhabitants is exploited regardless of their gender. They focus much of their activity on activating, supporting and creating female leadership and helping to break the glass roofs of this society.

Final comments

A worldwide network based and cohesive that can be a very good example and support to inspire many other initiatives.