In September last year, the Government Equalities Office (GEO) commissioned SFEDI to run a roadshow of Meet a Mentor events dedicated to the needs of female entrepreneurs.

Meet a Mentor, already established as a fantastic way for business mentors and mentees to initiate productive, professional relationships, was the ideal platform to bring dedicated mentoring support to female entrepreneurs. A roadshow of 12 events was organised and launched, fittingly, on 19th November – Women’s Entrepreneurship Day, by then Women and Equalities Minister Jo Swinson. The events, which took place everywhere from London to Leeds, Ballymena to Birmingham, were very well attended and ran to late March. Since then, evaluations have been conducted and statistics correlated so we can tell you exactly how well these female-focussed Meet a Mentors events were received.

An impressive 88% of delegates said that the event had met or exceeded their expectations. A similar number (86%) said the overall experience had been either good or excellent and 74% claimed they were very or extremely likely to recommend a friend. Perhaps most importantly, 81% of those who attended (as potential mentors or mentees) said that they had initiated one or more potential mentoring relationships at the event. Of that number, 95% expected to have future contact with the people they’d connected with. As part of her evaluation of the event, one attendee wrote:

“The event has benefited my business enormously, especially practical steps on how to move my business forward.”

Another said:
“It was a great event, the atmosphere, support and variation of attendees was all fantastic and I have met a mentor who I think will be an asset to helping my business grow to the next stage. Thank you.”

If you’d like to read SFEDI’s full GEO Evaluation, drop us an email at [email protected].