The Dream Grows On!

· Qatar Professional Women’s Network 5^th Birthday Celebration

· Monday 23^rd November 2015 – 6pm to 9pm

· Melia Hotel, 61 West Bay Lagoon Street, Doha, Qatar

QPWN – founded in 2010.

5 Years Later – the Event – “The Dream Grows On!”

QPWN celebrated in style at the new Melia Hotel this Monday! A record turnout – with over 175 ladies registered to attend – the event was a celebration of what has been achieved in line with the vision and mission: to support women’s advancement and development and contribute to the sustainability of the local community by helping its members expand their networks, refine their professional capabilities and benefit from cross-cultural sharing.

The evening started with a delightful fashion show provided by Jo Lamode and Trinity Talent Qatar with the models weaving through the tables to show off the beautiful dresses and abayahs.

Karen Kennaby, Leader of Qatar Professional Women’s Network and host for the evening welcomed everyone and invited them all to focus on their dreams for the evening and the forthcoming years before passing the stage to Maryam Al Subaiey, founder of Q Talent and Qatar Together. Maryam spoke with inspirational clarity and passion about the need for a dream to be turned into a vision and in turn for a lot of focussed hard work (and a lot of day dreaming) to go on to bring it to life. After Maryam saying “I don’t know how young mothers combine motherhood and business” we had a lovely example of one who does - Layla Al-Dorani, founder of Raw-ME and a very recent mother (her 6 week baby was with her)! She spoke of the dream that had lead her to create healthy alternatives such as vegetable juices for the Qatar market and her plans to develop other products to help improve the health of the nation.

The video from QPWN’s founder Christina Zini, who now lives in Alaska, reminded us all of her original dream and that of the founding members as they sat round her dining room table – to support and develop professional women in Qatar. Those who have been members since the beginning particularly loved seeing her again, this time in glorious Technicolor on the screen!

Christina spoke especially fondly of the Circle of Pearl Mentoring Scheme which was fitting as the event included the launch of the 6^th cycle of the Scheme and Hafize Sahin, who coordinates the programme now, talked of the difference the programme had made in so many mentees and mentors lives since its inception. We also heard personally from 2 mentees sharing their experiences and the value it is adding to them.

A first for QPWN was the presentation of the QPWN and Bio-Oil 2015 Dream Award for Women. The Award had 3 categories:

Ø A woman who has brought her dream to fruition in the last 5 years – which was won by Rachel Ann Morris who works professionally at Hamad Medical Corporation and has also created one of the most popular blogs in Qatar – Life on the Wedge

Ø A woman who is just bringing her dream to fruition – and the winner was Amal Al-Shammari founder of Embrace Doha

Ø And a woman who’s dream is selflessly focussed on others – which was won by humanitarian Margarita Zuniga who was also one of QPWNs founding members.

QPWN are very grateful to Doha Drug Store for sponsoring the Awards – which were beautiful crystal designs – and for sponsoring the event. (For more information please contact Christopher Desouza on [email protected]

Other sponsors included Diva Lounge Spa who not only provided support for the event but also their Group Operations Manager, Sughra Khaliq, lead an exercise on how to start bringing dreams to reality in a short period of time.

The raffle went down well with some fabulous prizes including a Gorgeous Session with Lydia Shaw Photography – who kindly provided her services for the event as a form of sponsorship.

Any birthday celebration has to have a cake – and what a stunning cake we had! Provided generously by Beracah Cakes

Other sponsors, not previously mentioned and who we are very grateful to, include: Size-34 who did all the stunning graphic design, Ginger Camel who filmed the event for posterity, Qatar Living as media partner, Future 318, Henna Spot, IMC Qatar and more...

“The quality of your life is determined by the quality of your connections” Karen Kennaby

Contact: Karen Kennaby, Leader QPWN. +974 5046 3459 [email protected]

QPWN website: http://www.qpwn.org

Follow us on our social media channels: @ILQlive @ILQlive @ILoveQtr ILoveQatar

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