Our annual Inspiring Women in Property (IWiP) awards ceremony, held for the fourth time on Tuesday, lived up to its billing in terms of inspiration.
Lem Bingley
While celebrating the achievements of winners from every corner of the industry, guests also heard from three powerful speakers.
Madeleine Knight, Property Week investigations editor, opened the evening by sharing her own experience of imposter syndrome.
Recalling her first industry conference, she said: “I looked around and saw a sea of people who didn’t seem much like me at all, confidently discussing topics I barely understood. I remember thinking: ‘What am I doing here?’”
Suppressing the urge to flee, she spotted a table of pastries: “I decided that before making any major career decisions, I should probably have a croissant.”
Those tasty pastries proved a sliding-door moment, helping Knight to summon the courage to approach other delegates. “They were welcoming, encouraging and generous with their time,” she recalled. “Sometimes the biggest challenge is convincing ourselves we belong in the room.”
Small wonder that outsiders feel excluded when we talk such gibberish
Knight was followed by IWiP Hall of Fame inductee Chithra Marsh, former national chair of Women in Property, recognised for decades of work promoting equality.
“I’ve been heavily influenced by my Indian heritage, my gender and now my age,” Marsh told guests. “But in the early part of my life and career, I spent an awful lot of time trying to fit in. I turned away from my heritage and leaned into my British identity; somewhat ashamed of my difference. Now I’m ashamed that I was ashamed. Because it was only later in life that I realised [that] my experiences and perspective weren’t something to hide; they were something to value.”
While we digested these profound and moving thoughts there was also time for a levity, courtesy of comedian Lucy Porter. “In the room tonight we have CEOs, CFOs, MDs and VPs from companies including CBRE, LSH, KR8, KWB, HSPG, DWF, JLL and the PBH programme,” she observed.
“Some of you might be members of RICS, RIBA or RE:UK, working in the BTR sector on PBSA or HMOs, maybe working with MMC, and you’re all committed to reducing your CO2 and GHGs. You might have to calculate LTV, ROCE, TSR, EBITDA and NAV. Many of you work with MHCLG and LAs, responsible for stuff like GDPR compliance, ESG frameworks, CSR policies and DEI initiatives.
“And while you’ve got to hit your KPIs you’re just normal people wondering whether HMG and the BoE are doing enough about inflation on the RPI, not to mention what’s going on in the USA with DT and the GOP, hoping everything will be A-OK with the UK’s GDP after GB said TTFN to the EU.
“And at that point, I just thought, OMG, WTF, LOL. Your industry is full of BS.”
She has a point, and in her tongue-twisting gag there lurks a serious point: small wonder that outsiders feel excluded when we talk such gibberish.
Still, here’s hoping at least one particular acronym – IWiP – will continue to gain currency across the industry. See you there next year?
