On the 15th of June both Paige and Shaz visited the first Women in Natural Stone (WINS) networking event at The Counting House in Bank, London. As the stone industry tends to be male dominated, WINS was formed to create a fantastic opportunity for women from all walks of the stone industry to connect in a relaxed environment to exchange details to hopefully work together not only on a business level but also to talk about their ideas on how they can all work to create more opportunities for women within the industry and to inspire and encourage the next generation of women in construction.
WINS was formed by the Stone Federation in partnership with its members but the group wants the benefits to be available to the whole sector, so they have made the group accessible not only to federation members but also the wider circle.
The event had the aim of bringing all current members who have previously connected through prior video conferences together as well as introducing new potential members to the current circle. The event was an incredible success with around 70 women from different branches of the stone industry in attendance. Paige and Shaz both expressed that it was a great opportunity to meet with other women to discuss how Ionic Stone could work with them for future projects and they both found it to be a group that is very much needed and they are excited to see how the group progresses in the future.
It is very important that women are given equal opportunities within the construction sector and it is great to see a group of women come together to collectively come up with ideas to make this happen. A special thanks to Becca Cranfield at Athena Stonecare for inviting Ionic Stone to be part of this incredible event.