On Monday 9th March, we hosted our annual Tomorrow’s Women Conference, held in recognition and in celebration of International Women’s Day. It is an event organised to learn from the experiences and achievements of inspirational women from a range of careers. Each year, we invite a panel of guest speakers to share their journey and advice. This year we were delighted to welcome:
Amanda Collier – A former Detective Chief Inspector at the Metropolitan Police Service with 29 years of experience. She worked on major cases, including the attempted murder of Stephen Timms, and later appeared on the TV show The Traitors.
Ellie Bishop-Williams – Creative and Artistic Director of Project Female UK, a Brighton-based youth dance group supporting girls and non-binary young people through performance, confidence-building, and social action.
Julie Kapsalis – CEO and Principal of North East Surrey College of Technology (Nescot) in Epsom. She supports around 6,000 students and was awarded an MBE in the 2026 New Year Honours for services to economic development.
Flo Powell and Alex Hankinson – Joint Managing Directors and co-owners of the award-winning Midnight PR since 2018, working together for over a decade and supporting girls’ empowerment through The Girls’ Network.
The theme for International Women’s Day this year was ‘Give to gain’. To us, the theme highlighted the importance of sharing knowledge and experience to uplift and support each other, and there was no better way of honouring that than with this conference, creating a ripple effect of growth and opportunities.
The event was organised by lower sixth and we opted for a slightly different style of conference than customary, a podcast style format, where each speaker was brought on and engaged in conversations with students for advice to be shared more naturally. We also hosted a hot chocolate and cupcake sale at break time in aid of The Girls Network and raised just over £140!
‘Having witnessed many Tomorrow’s Women Conferences throughout my time here at BHG, it was an amazing opportunity to finally host one myself alongside my friends and it has given me skills that are beneficial for my future!’ – Kiya Foreman, host
Planning the event was both a new and exciting challenge for us to take on, we were given the opportunity to work collaboratively and organise everything from how we shape the theme, questions for the speakers, creating the flyers and marketing, choosing our guest speakers, and even the playlist and the colour of the icing for the cupcakes!
Of course, the first major step was selecting the speakers. This involved researching the guests and drafting professional emails. For many of us this was the first experience of communicating in a professional way and it provided us with valuable knowledge of how events are organised behind the scenes.
On the day itself, we were joined by 140 year 10 students from our local community, as well as our own year 10s for lunch in the dining room before the conference. The atmosphere was energetic and our podcast-style format allowed for honest and open conversations where the speakers could reflect on their journey. As the student hosts, we were able to guide the discussion by asking questions making it an interactive experience for both the guests and audience.
Throughout the conference, the “Give to Gain” theme remained central to the discussion. All the speakers reflected on the importance of networking and making connections and contacts along your journey as well as seizing every opportunity given to you, to make yourself stand out. Another key point echoed by all the speakers was about being proud of your achievements and owning them as many women and girls tend to suffer from imposter syndrome.
‘Being part of the Tomorrow’s Women team reminded me of the importance of teamwork, encouraging one another, and sharing ideas. The whole afternoon was such special occasion celebrating womanhood and female empowerment and I am so thankful to have heard from these inspirational speakers and to have played a part in the organising process!’ – Zoe Cheal, host
Being responsible for organising and hosting this event taught us a wide range of transferable skills including, event planning and organisation, how to communicate professionally, practicing public speaking and hosting, networking with professionals and leading and participating in live discussions.
‘It gave me the chance to practice public speaking in a safe environment which was a valuable opportunity!’ – Sanaa Ugradar, host
Hosting the Tomorrow’s women conference was an incredibly rewarding experience and we are very grateful to have been given the opportunity. It gave us the chance to organise an event and learn new things along the way as well as contributing to a meaningful conversation inspired by International Women’s Day.
We would like to extend our thanks to the guest speakers, our visiting schools, Tash, Mia, Alan and Catering, and Mr Osbourne.
– Written by the Tomorrow’s Women Conference Team
