Women's Initiative events
The Women’s Network has an active social calendar with frequent events scheduled over the course of the year.
Highlights include our annual International Training Week Women’s Brunch, regular Cocktails & Canapés evenings as well as Recruitment events. Find out more about past and upcoming events.
“It was a great way of celebrating inspirational women and to fuel a positive conversation about gender equality.” Karoline, Associate Consultant
Women's Alumni panel - 12th April 2021
In honour of International Women’s Day, the Women’s Network organised a Women’s Alumni panel for all members of OC&C.
The panel discussed their careers both at OC&C and after, focusing on how OC&C has helped develop their position today and their experiences as women in professional industries.
Global get-to-know - 25th March 2021
The Women’s Network enjoyed hearing about some of our female Managers, Associate Partners and Partners’ passions and experiences, from entrepreneurial projects and adventure sports to baby gorillas!
Virtual painting activity - 17th March 2021
We celebrated #IWD2021 as a global women’s network through a series of exciting events around the globe.
Our US team spent an evening painting 'Rule the World'. One of our colleagues said she would put her version on her daughter’s wall for inspiration.
IWD Speaker Session: Jo Fairley - 10th March 2021
As part of International Women's Month 2021 celebrations, we heard from Jo Fairley about her journey from the UK's youngest magazine editor to founder of a £100m global business, including how she dealt with imposter syndrome along the way.
Imposter Syndrome Speaker Session 20th January 2021
We spoke to Dr Candice Schaefer, clinical psychologist and Global Head of Employee Wellness at Twitter, about Imposter Syndrome.
Candice explained Imposter Syndrome from a psychological perspective, pointed out the key things to look out for in yourself/your team mates, and discussed coping mechanisms and strategies.
Global Bi-monthly Women's Initiative Catch-up
Our global Women's Network meetings are a great opportunity to connect, catch-up and share ideas, especially whilst working remotely.
International Training Week Annual Women’s Network Brunch, Warsaw - 26th September 2019
The Women’s Initiative invited everyone engaged with the Women’s Initiative to attend the annual Women’s Network Lunch, held during our International Training week in Warsaw. We went to Wilcza 50 Restaurant where we had a fantastic buffet style lunch and heard from Olivia (an Associate Partner in London) about some recent initiatives, as well as the future goals of the network.
Women’s Network Lunch, London – 20th September 2019
The London Women’s Network hosted a “leaving lunch” at Tas Restaurant for Felicity and Sarah, two of our Managers who are going on maternity leave. We wish them all the best on their maternity leave and are excited to welcome them back soon!
Women’s Breakfast Series, London – July 2019
Our Women’s Breakfast Series are aimed at helping women across the firm, of all levels of seniority and role, meet each other in an informal and enjoyable setting. Coffee and breakfast (both healthy and otherwise!) are provided and there is no set agenda – just an opportunity to catch up with women you already know, meet those you don’t know and create additional friendships and a better network beyond the women in your peer group, pod or project teams.
Cocktails & Canapés, London – 24th July 2019
Cocktails and canapés at The Little Fable – what better way to bring together women with shared experiences, allowing them to discuss and gain advice without judgement, helping to tackle the challenges women face within the business.
We had a great turn out of women from all areas of and roles within the business; from Consultants through to Partner level and Business Services staff.
Women’s Dinner, New York – 17th July 2019
We’re always keen for an occasion to celebrate and the arrival of our 2019 Summer female interns was the perfect justification for an evening of great food and conversation to welcome our newest joiners.
Trouble Club, London – 20th May 2019
As part of our relationship with the Trouble Club, a group of men and women attended a Trouble Club talk at the Groucho Club in Soho on the Extinction Rebellion.
Description of the talk from the Trouble Club:
“We've all forgotten that this lot got naked and displayed their plump young buttocks in front of parliament. They've done a whole lot more to get noticed since then. The Extinction Rebellion gang has been in the news constantly over the last few weeks for their peaceful yet tenacious protests.
We have a few of their criminally convicted members coming to discuss with us including Farhana Yamin, the academic and climate change lawyer who glued herself to the Shell building. An evening not to be missed.”
Women’s Brunch, Munich – 10th May 2019
We hosted a Women’s Brunch with the LMU Women in Business Society at Café Dominique in Munich. This gave students an opportunity to find out more about OC&C and about consulting more broadly in a relaxed and friendly environment with some of our female consulting staff.
Alumni Event, London – 16th April 2019
In collaboration with our Alumni Network we hosted our annual Alumni event for current women and consulting alumni at The Ice Tank. It was a fantastic opportunity to bring together former and current OC&Cers for a lovely evening of catching up, meeting new people and sharing stories over prosecco and canapes.
A highlight of the evening was to be joined by Charlotte Edwards, MBE, who gave a speech on her career as a former captain of the England’s Women’s Cricket Team. She spoke on both building a successful career in a male-dominated sector and striving for a work-life balance – something we can all learn from!
Trouble Club, London – 18th March 2019
Trouble Club talks hosted another thought provoking and conversation starting evening. This time the topic under the microscope was “Follow the Money: How the media pays for itself, or doesn’t”. Held at the Groucho Cub in Soho the feedback from the women and men who attended was that it was a “super interesting event where challenges were debated to a deeper level in a more honest way than other type of debates I have experienced. Super encouraging!”
Description of the talk from the Trouble Club:
“What’s just happened? Buzzfeed, Vice and Huffington Post are laying off staff, the Pool has gone under. But weren’t these the girls and guys who were going to revolutionise big media?
Oh and Facebook has just made record profits. So let’s go under the bonnet and work out how the money works in media, who is winning, who is losing and why - this is more complex than it looks.
Leading the discussion, we have former editor-in-chief of Buzzfeed UK Janine Gibson, Katie Vanneck-Smith, former president of Dow Jones and now editor of the feted slow news venture Tortoise, media analyst Claire Enders, and one more person to be confirmed. They will be discussing various models, including social media, as well as looking at how commercial interests are involved.”
International Women's Day, London, New York – 8th March 2019
At OC&C, we want to celebrate our female role models, both in our work environment and in our personal lives. So, for International Women’s Day 2019, we asked our colleagues to send us their stories of a woman that has inspired them and why.
The contributions we received ranged from personal stories about moms, wives and family members, inspirational clients who made us think differently about how we understand industry dynamics, to fierce and compassionate CEOs who both men and women at this firm aspire to become like. We collected all the contributions to one large PowerPoint presentation (we are consultants after all!) and gathered in the café to view it together – whilst eating delicious cake!
It was a great way of celebrating inspirational women and to fuel a positive conversation about gender equality.
Cocktails and Canapés - Women’s Network Relaunch, London – 26th February 2019
To celebrate the relaunch of the OC&C Women’s Network, we hosted an informal evening of cocktails, canapés and conversation at Clifford’s.
Trouble Club, London – 25th February 2019
On the 25th February, a group attended the #MeToo The Reboot: Power and Politics @ Trouble Club, the latest in a range of talks and debates hosted by The Trouble Club. This is always a great evening with interesting and topical all for a diverse mix of women (with men invited occasionally!)
Description of the talk by the Trouble Club:
“We talked a lot about #metoo. But what happened next? 15 months after our last #metoo talk, it is time to return to see if any progress has been made. We will be talking broadly about it, but with a specific eye to Westminster, the crucible of power, where the drama of sexual harassment and bullying accusations has been played out in the public eye.
Our speakers for this event are Laura Hughes, political correspondent at the Financial Times, who has led an investigation into the culture of sexual harassment in Parliament, Hannah White, a former Parliamentary clerk and now deputy director of the Institute for Government, and writer and critic Kate Maltby whose allegations of impropriety led to the resignation of de facto deputy Prime Minister Damien Green.”
Women’s Brunch, Chicago – 28th September 2018
During the 2018 International Training Week, OC&C women from across our international Women’s network came together for a morning of brunch and conversations. We heard from Chunchun (an Associate Consultant in China), Chessy (a Consultant in London) and Mairi (a Partner in London) who shared some of their personal stories, in order to celebrate the experiences and achievements of our women outside of the workplace.