London: 35 Under 35

Arrived in London yesterday morning to beautiful, sunny, cool weather. I love getting into Heathrow at 5:30am, no long immigration queues. I was already checking into the Courthouse Kempinski before 7am (love the location of the hotel -- Le Pain Quotidien with free wifi is just next door, Liberty and Starbucks is right across the street, Apple Shop is just around the corner on Regent Street as are the shops of Conduit Street). Of course, no rooms were available, so I dropped off my bags and headed across the street to the Starbucks, which was already open and has T-Mobile wifi (I had already bought a pass on the ride into town on Heathrow Express). I just wish cities would hurry up and set up citywide wifi. It is such a pain to have to sign-on and off different wifi networks at different locations, paying for multiple passes.

On this trip, I was the guest of World Business, organizers of a global 35 Under 35 list, and Shell, the event sponsor. World Business and a panel of international judges had chosen to highlight the accomplishments of 35 women, under the age of 35, from a pool of nominations. The resulting list, which includes myself, is very diverse, both in terms geography and fields. Over cocktails and dinner, I met a Russian banker who focuses on making small loans to SMEs, a Colombian promoter of "green" gold and platinum mining practices and products, an American social entrepreneur working with women in Darfur and Rwanda among many other fascinating women doing meaningful work, each trying to bring about positive change in some way.