I’d like to extend a very warm welcome to everyone attending the Women in Property Central Scotland Annual Dinner 2024, here at the glamorous VOCO Grand Central in Glasgow. This event is the culmination of meticulous planning by some truly amazing individuals on the committee, and we are delighted that the day has finally arrived for us to celebrate together. We hope you have a fabulous evening.

Our charity this year is Scottish Women’s Aid, an incredible organisation that holds a special place in my heart, as it has provided great help to two of my closest friends in the last five years. It fills me with joy that we can support the work they do. Scottish Women’s Aid is the leading organisation in Scotland working towards the prevention of domestic abuse, with a vision of a Scotland without domestic abuse, where women, young people, and children can enjoy all their human rights and have equal opportunities to pursue all their ambitions.

Tonight’s event would not have been possible without our four sponsors – Will Rudd, Perspective, Kier, and Martec. We are truly grateful for your sponsorship – thank you so much. Over this past year, as Chair of the Central Scotland branch, it has been an incredible honour to work with our Committee, the Scotland Board, and all the brilliant companies that have continued to get involved and provide their ongoing support. I am truly blessed to be surrounded and supported by such an amazing group of people. They have all helped me advance my aim for this year, which was to focus on inclusivity in the sector. We were very pleased to win the BE-ST Fest ‘23 Accelerate to Zero Awards in the category of Diversity and Inclusion, for all the hard work our volunteers put into promoting more inclusivity in the industry through events, training, mentoring, support, and running programmes like our Schools outreach and the Student awards.

We have had an absolutely fabulous year with over 60 events organised by the three Scottish branches, ranging from
inclusivity webinars, netwalks, a Vertical Distillery site visit to wellbeing events like Pilates in the Botanics and everything inbetween. Membership has increased month on month, and we have continued to provide an incredible support network to everyone involved. There’s even more to look forward to in 2024! Keep an eye out for our National conference focused on Rethinking places and all the fringe events we will be organising around the 14th of November!

I’m passing the mantle of Chair to Jillian Love, who has been supporting me and shadowing me all year! I have no doubt she will continue to achieve marvellous things. Bring it on, Jill! 

Aurora Tallon
CS Chair 2023