Press for Progress

The event by Believe in Yourself urged people to promote gender parity and ensure progress in their personal and professional lives.

Last week Mumbai saw a unique event called Press for Progress, which was conceptualised and run by Believe In Yourself—a platform for HR thought leaders and believers, who are trying to make a difference by helping everyone believe in themselves, their potential and their dreams. The group works in the areas of human transformation, building authentic leadership, purpose and culture in the corporate world.

The Press for Progress campaign was conceptualised and run by team BIY, which worked with a team of volunteers across five cities over 40 days to build awareness and gather support for gender parity across corporate India. This campaign was under the aegis of United Nations Global Compact with SHRM as knowledge partner. #PressforProgress campaign was run on all BIY social media handles (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn). Hashtag #BIY2018. On Twitter (preferred social media for HR) alone 311 people were active, 1360 tweets were generated and 4.6 million impressions created.

The campaign culminated in a marquee event on 7 March at Hotel Taj Lands End, Mumbai which saw many senior leaders—Yash Mahadik, Animesh Kumar, Vivek Paranjpe, Rohit Bansal, Madhavi Lall, Sriram Yogi, Achal Khanna, Adhir Mane, Mahalaxmi, Marcel Parker, Gurpriett Singh and several others—turn up to support the cause of gender equality, education and empowerment. The event was attended by 75 delegates. The eminent non-corporate leaders—most of them TEDx speakers—who have been championing meaningful causes for decades, such as Dr Indu Shahani, Shatbhi Basu, Ritika Sahni and Anil Srivatsa shared their personal stories of Believe In Yourself, and how they are presently driving impactful movements to contribute to society.

The stories and conversations revolved around gender parity at the workplace, real and perceived glass ceiling for women, what corporates can do to make the workplace more inclusive, how they can build capability in their workforce and what they can do to ensure a level playing field for women. There was also a candid panel discussion on ‘Why is gender diversity still a topic of discussion?’; ‘What does the society and industry need to do to Press for Progress?’

The event saw the launch of a unique diversity product, called ‘U&I’ by SHRM and Believe In Yourself. It has two formats (two-day workshop to create awareness and a 12 months’ programme to build deep capability) for women in corporates. This programme will be held as an open workshop and also have a customised format for corporates. Harlina Sodhi is the lead and anchor for ‘U&I’.

The evening ended with everyone pledging to take personal and assertive action to Press for Progress in their personal and professional lives. What was interesting about the event was that everyone came together to help further the goal of gender parity by promoting the message of BIY (Believe In Yourself) among women. It’s time that both ‘U&I’ joined hands too!