awards won by WIN

2006

Women Into the Network presented with Corporate Award at the CBI First Women Awards.

The gala ceremony held at London's Hilton Park Lane saw the UK's most pioneering businesswomen recognised for their achievements and for the contribution they have made to the broadening of women's opportunities in the world of business.  Ten awards, including a Lifetime Achievement Award were presented by high profile guests such as Sir David Frost and Sarah Brown, wife of the Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown.

The First Women Corporate Award recognises one organisation that is deemed to have made an extraordinary contribution to women’s role in the workforce and, by extension, is helping to boost the performance of the UK economy.  Women Into the Network were put forward for this prestigious award and supported in this nomination by the judging panel, CBI and Real Business.

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Flagship Award to acknowledge level of support to women’s enterprise development

Women Into the Network were recognised as providing a “Flagship” level of support to women’s enterprise development by PROWESS, the national women’s enterprise support trade association for the third year running (see details of award in 2003). This flagship status helped to demonstrate the quality of WIN's delivery to women during our formative years.  WIN's maturity and continued development has now been independently recognised through the achievement of the CBI First Woman Awards 2006 and the Queen's Award for Enterprise Promotion.

2005

Royal Award for Dinah Bennett of Women Into the Network, Durham Business School

Dinah Bennett, Director and founder of Women Into the Network, & senior tutor at Durham Business School has been recognised for her outstanding work in supporting & promoting enterprise and entrepreneurship, with the highest honour that can be bestowed on a UK company or individual.

Dinah was awarded an individual lifetime award, The Queen’s Award for Enterprise Promotion, which recognises outstanding contribution to the development and promotion of an enterprise culture. 

The Director of the networking initiative who has worked tirelessly over the last 20 years in the  area of entrepreneurship and enterprise promotion, latterly with a focus on women’s enterprise development,  was honoured at a ceremony on 12th July at Buckingham Palace. 

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2004

Dinah Bennett is awarded Outstanding Contribution to Women’s Enterprise Development

WIN Project Director & founder, Dinah Bennett, was recognised as providing an outstanding contribution to women’s enterprise development by PROWESS, the national women’s enterprise support trade association.

The PROWESS Awards for Outstanding Contribution to Women’s Enterprise Development in the UK were developed to recognise the contributions of both individuals and organisations to developing and innovating in the women’s enterprise support sector.

Four awards were presented at the Prowess 2nd International Conference in Nottingham on 11^th November, including Innovator Award, Business Link Award, Business Support Professional of the Year, and Outstanding Contribution to Women’s Enterprise Development.

The late Sandy Richardson of Tees Valley Business Link, who set up WIN in Teesside, deservedly won the Business Support Professional of the Year Award.

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2003

Best practice initiative for promoting female entrepreneurship

Women Into the Network were selected as the UK’s best practice initiative for promoting female entrepreneurship by a European Union commissioned survey.

The European Commission charged the Austrian Institute for Small Business Research with the task of identifying specific actions and measures promoting female entrepreneurship throughout Europe. The criteria focussed on actions and measures in seven areas: support for start ups; funding; training; mentoring; information; advice and consultancy, and networking. Across the board, 132 initiatives were identified as potential success stories. In the UK, ten initiatives fulfilled the criteria and WIN was selected as a clear example of good practice.

WIN represented the UK speaking at a prestigious forum on female entrepreneurship in Brussels.  For more information on this research click here.

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Flagship Award to acknowledge level of support to women’s enterprise development

Women Into the Network were recognised as providing a “Flagship” level of support to women’s enterprise development by PROWESS, the national women’s enterprise support trade association.

WIN was assessed against thirteen distinct standards of excellence designed to measure inclusion, equality, client focus and quality in the provision of support. In achieving the “Flagship” standard the organisation is one of only two in the UK recognised as achieving the highest possible levels in all these areas.

The award (designed by WIN member, Annemarie Fitzsimmons-Keogh of Natural Interventions) was presented at the PROWESS National Conference in Brighton by Ann Crisp representing the sponsors NatWest and received by WIN’s Events and Communications Manager Lisa Vickers. The objective of the standards is to help organisations identify, measure and improve their services to existing and potential women business owners.

Click here to read the press release