What’s in a name?

I don’t like the name the Henley Female Newtork. I’ve actually never really liked it. It sounds bland and corporate to me. It doesn’t sound dynamic or exciting. It doesn’t sound warm and welcoming. The name came about one drizzly December day sitting in the Hart Street Tavern. I was sitting with my friend Ruth who was working at the Chiltern Centre at the time discussing the success of a recent ‘Night of Adventure’ - an event where we invited speakers to share their adventures. By chance, all of the speakers that night had been female and as a result the audience too was mostly women. There was something about the energy in the room, something about listening to inspiring women, something about the evening that we really loved and we decided there was an opportunity to build on it.

So, just a few days before Christmas we decided we’d start a series of events for women. Ruth was going to find the first speaker, I was going to do the marketing and host the whole event and we were going to do our first one on the fourth week of January. With Christmas upon us we just needed to get on with is so we could launch marketing in early January and so we needed a name. The Henley Female Network was the first name that we came up with and it was fine! We figured we could think about the name again later on if we needed to.

But Ruth moved on to pastures new, and I never got around to changing it. I could change it now of course - I could call it a tribe or a collective or a community. I could make it sound cooler, more dynamic and more fun. I could spend hours working out the brand, throwing words around, thinking about the colours and the font and the feel. And honestly I probably should. But, here’s what I love about the Henley Female Network - I love the people, I love being in the room with you all, I love listening to the speakers, I love the atmosphere in the room, I love hearing people’s stories, I love how empowered people feel after a session. And honestly, that’s where I want to focus my attention - on putting on joyful events for women who care about the world and the people in it. So, I’m not going to ponder the name too much - and if you’ve been put off coming because the name is so dull - take this as your sign that you should give it a go!