Chloe applied back in October to attend She Can Be and as we were going to have to stay in London the night before to be there on time, I also volunteered to be a helper at the event, should she be selected.

The event was designed to “help girls break the glass ceiling” and 60 girlguiding members and 40 girls from other groups were chosen to attend. It was supported by The Lord Mayor’s Appeal Charity.

On Tues 13th Feb we arrived at Mansion House and met with the rest of our group of 10 girls aged 14 – 18. (Chloe only just fitted the criteria having just had her 14th birthday two days before, whilst one of the other girls in our group had just been offered a place at Oxford). I’m not sure if anyone else went from Devon, but in our group we had girls from Essex, Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle and the London surrounds. (I have all their names from our group if you want them).

As with the Baftas, the girls were then given an envelope telling them where they would be going for the morning (the first time they knew). We were off to Allianz Global Investments (199 Bishopsgate). All the groups then set off to walk to their companies.

We were taken to a massive conference room and had a talk from one of their senior female staff Deborah, who’s advice to the girls was “be confident, be ambitiousand have a good heart”. Liz then took over the session and explained what the company does, about equities, fixed income, multi-asset and alternative investments. The girls were then split into 2 groups (one was called Girls 100, but I can’t remember what the other one was called) and they had to build a portfolio of investments for the SheeCanBee Charitable Trust, investing £100m into a mix of safe and risky investments but with ethical companies who would have a positive impact on the world. They were given 7 fictional companies to pick from and had to argue their case on which stocks and bonds they chose. Despite both teams making different selections the point was they all argued brilliantly for their choices.

We were then taken on a tour of the 3 floors where Allianz Global were based and met other key staff who explained their roles. Returning to the conference room we had talks from 2 PR ladies (and the girls had to come up with catchy headlines based on their weekend) and another from Compliance (where they had to handle a case study on an internal complaint).

During a pizza lunch more female staff joined the group and talked one-to-one to all the girls before the morning was rounded off and we walked back to Mansion House. Once here we joined men and women from diverse London companies who were all supporting the event. We were split into more groups (I think at least 30) and in between key note speakers we had discussions in our groups on “inspiring insights and challenging the future”, “what stood out for the women during the morning sessions” and “what is your organisation doing to help?”

The afternoon session was led by Professor Averil Macdonald OBE (Emeritus Professor of Science Engagement) and our first speaker was Dame Fiona Woolfe DBE who was Lord Mayor of London 2013/2014 and the second female Lord Mayor in about 900 years! We had talks on cyber security, unveiling new research and Donna Robertson introduced us to a wonderful website called Modern Muse to connect women with other women in 1,000s of different careers who can help as mentors.

The afternoon ended with everyone making a pledge and posting it on twitter. A massive group photo was taken and everyone did a bit more networking before heading off – buzzing after a challenging and energising afternoon.

Group at Allianz Global with Liz / Chatting one-to-one with staff at lunchtime
“Girls 100” group planning for £100m investment / Welcome board
Professor Averil Macdonald / Dame Fiona Woolfe
DeviaDurjar and a Girlguiding advocate / One of 4 pledge boards
Chloe on the front podium / Lorna and Chloe at Mansion House