A couple of years ago I was privileged to be selected to participate in the Goldman Sachs-GIBS 10 000 women programme – a global programme focusing on 10 000 women entrepreneurs in developing countries who were making a difference.
I was asked to speak at our graduation and the title of my speech was “We came in small – and we walk out Tall” which was a tribute to how most of us talked ourselves down and did not own our achievements.
Johannesburg based Sian Eliot and Ari Geva founded Mema designs in 2013. It was a common fascination with a lightweight, corrosive resistant metal fabric made from thousands of 0.2mm metal wires that led them on this journey that resulted in the beautiful Ukhamba lamps that were launched in February 2015.
Two years ago, I was honoured, in my capacity as a founder Trustee on the Southern Guild Design Foundation, to present a prize to an amazing young man – Laurie Wiid van Heerden who had won, amongst other prestigious awards, the Maker to Market Award presented by Southern Guild Foundation in 2013. This award recognizes a design company that understands the value of packaging, for presentation and protection, identity and brand building, logistics and the various processes that take place between production and sales.
