I love what I do … social media, blogging, digital marketing, digital PR. It’s awesome to have found my little “spot” in the world and to finally know what it is that I want to do with my life.
What’s even more awesome is connecting with other women who are already incredibly successful in a world that’s been pretty much male-dominated for so long. The world of “tech” was a bit of a “boys’ club” vibe, but, thanks to organisations like Quality Life Company, this is a mindset of the past.
Debby Edelstein is an entrepreneur and thought leader credited with driving the soul of business movement in South Africa. Leadership magazine described her as “representative of a new group of business people in this country”. Eight years ago she initiated conversations with change agents and business leaders in the SA community around the role of business in transforming society. Today the conversation has grown to become an annual Soul of Business conference where business leaders, social entrepreneurs, musicians and thought leaders congregate to explore and chart the role business can play in transforming South African society. An international speaker and thinker on the new leadership, Debby is invited to address and participate in leading edge conferences and think-tanks around the world.
She designs and presents workshops in women’s leadership and the soul of business and finds great satisfaction in creating programmes and interventions for organisations that are bold enough to embrace new paradigm thinking. Born and raised in East London, she studied at Wits University and Wits Business School. She sits on the advisory board for the Centre for Spirituality and the Workplace in the Sobey School of Business at Saint Mary’s University in Canada and on the editorial board for the Spirit at Work Journal in the UK. Debby and her husband Dunne co-founded QualityLife Company which they run together. They have two children, Adam (14) and Rachel (10).
My interactions with Debby from the outset have been friendly and warm and her enthusiasm and willingness toward having me as one of her #WiredWomen ambassadors, leading up to the 2nd Annual Wired Women Conference, has left me feeling inspired, confident and excited to tell all the fabulous geek girls and digital divas out there, what a great opportunity this conference is going to be.
There is an incredible line-up of speakers booked for the conference, which will run over a day and a half on 13 and 14 September (next week!) at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Rosebank. The two I’m most looking forward to hearing are Melissa Attree and Melanie Minnaar, both of whom I place on pretty high pedestals. They’re the kind of #WiredWomen I want to be, when I’m all grown up 
So, whether you’re:
- a technophobe who nevertheless would love to work in tech;
- a change agent or social entrepreneur;
- a marketer;
- an innovator; or
- a male or female leader committed to developing talent
you REALLY don’t want to miss this unique opportunity to learn from the most inspiring geek girls and tech savvy leaders around.
Just some of the other fantastic speakers lined up for the conference include:
- Monica Singer, the first CEO of SA’s Central Securities Depository, Strate Ltd
- Michelle Atagana, Managing Editor of Memeburn
- Claire Diaz-Ortiz, author and speaker who leads social innovation at Twitter, Inc.
- Heidi Brauer, ex-Deputy CEO at Markinor, then marketing director at Kulula.com and now “flying solo”
- Thandi O’Hagan, Senior PR & Marketing Manager of the Sci-Bono Discovery Centre
- Melanie Minnaar MD Halo, a small agency championing brand centricity through integrated communications. She has worked at SBSA and Sun International in various marketing roles. Melanie is Founder of the Twitter Blanket Drive (#TBDZA & #TBDZW), a movement for good driven through social media, which extended to include Zimbabwe in 2012 in the 3rd year of the project (www.twitterblanketdrive.co.za).
- Melissa Attree is a marketing, social media and digitalPR consultant who is passionate about using new media tools to get consumers and brands talking. Melissa majored in Journalism & Media Studies and English at Rhodes and started her career as a copywriter. Since then, she has worked in various marketing/management positions. In 2007 Melissa started GetOn eMarketing, consulting to companies to bridge the offline/online link. In 2012 Melissa joined Cerebra.
thanks so much for this lovely post Nicki:-) looking forward to seeing you at #wiredwomen soon
Shew Nicki! I only got to read your blog post now, after the #WiredWomen event held last week. I sincerely hope I didn’t disappoint you with the panel discussion – I would have been far more nervous had I known you were going to be hanging on every word
You were fantastic! Thank you Mel!