Helen Cannon, Founder and CEO of ISON Travel, joined the panel on 8th March at a Women in Business event to discuss gender equality in the workplace.
Collaboration
The event, hosted by the Surrey Chambers of Commerce and the Businesswomen In Surrey (BWIS) Steering Group, invited local business leaders, including Helen, to share their experiences.
The keynote speaker was the Diversity & Inclusion Thought Leader, Author and CEO Teresa Boughey. Teresa explored the fundamentals businesses should consider and shared some practical guidance on actions everyone can take, regardless of company size or specialism.
The panel also included Tom Higgins, Founder and CEO of Gold-i, a global market leader in trading technology; Alison Galvin MBE, Chief People Officer and co-founder at Inv Group, a company that creates opportunities, guidance and support for people to succeed; and Laura Madeley FCA, Director at Menzies, a mid-tier full service accountancy firm.
Embracing equity
The panel of local business leaders, including Helen, shared their experiences, and specifically the actions they’ve taken in their businesses to adopt equality and equity initiatives to create a diverse and inclusive workplace. Embracing equity means recognising that each person’s circumstances are unique, so what they need to grow and succeed will be too.
Personal values
The values that are most important to Helen professionally and personally are flexibility and diversity. She started ISON 10 years ago, after nine years of raising a family of five children and now nearly half of the 50 staff work flexible part-time hours and over 70% are women.
