The Bicester Collection launches the Unlock Her Future Prize

  • Publish date: Wednesday، 21 December 2022
The Bicester Collection launches the Unlock Her Future Prize

The Bicester Collection launches the Unlock Her Future Prize Empowering women and women’s innovative ideas across the globe

The Bicester Collection is a family of 9 distinctive shopping destinations in Europe defined by extraordinary experiences while offering remarkable value. The Collection, created and operated by Value Retail, brings together the world’s most discerning guests and the world’s most renowned brands – often for the first time – on a journey of discovery. The Villages are located close to some of Europe’s and China’s most celebrated cities: London, Milan, Munich, Dublin, Barcelona, Madrid, Paris, Brussels, Frankfurt, and Munich. Collectively home to more than 1,300 boutiques, The Bicester Collection offers guests an ever-evolving curation of fashion and lifestyle brands, world-famous restaurants, exciting pop-ups, and imaginative art installations throughout the year.

Driven by its continuous efforts to empower women through every facet of its organisation, The Bicester Collection – where 66% of the employees are women, and 52% hold management positions with equal representation at Board level – has launched its annual entrepreneurship initiative, Unlock Her Future.

As part of its DO GOOD program, The Bicester Collection has launched the annual Unlock Her Future Prize, an initiative championing women game-changers and identifying role models for future generations. The inaugural 2023 edition will launch in MENA and then roll out to a different geographical region each year.

The Unlock Her Future Prize will support three extraordinary women social entrepreneurs, providing the financial, social and human capital support to empower them to develop their business skills and launch their start-up ventures and drive sustainable positive social, environmental and economic impact within their local region for generations to come. Each of the three winners will receive a business grant of up to US$100,000.

The prize is open to women from the MENA region who are first-time founders of any age with an inspiring not-for-profit business idea that aims to deliver a positive and sustainable impact on society, as defined by the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

Supporting partners include Ashoka Arab World; the regional hub for Ashoka and the world's largest platform for social entrepreneurs.

Ashoka Arab World is a pioneered social entrepreneurship, who aims, since 2003, at identifying world-leading social entrepreneurs to assist them at making a change, and paving the way for them to flourish across the Arab region, along with the world renown faculty, New York University Abu Dhabi.

The Bicester Collection's DO GOOD programme drives women's progress in several ways; through its enduring charity partnerships that empower women locally and globally and through its advocacy work, influencing global organisations and rallying policymakers and business leaders to bring gender equality to the front of the agenda.

The Bicester Collection’s mission is to generate transformative social impact through their inspirational partners, with a focus on unlocking the potential of women and children, to align with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals to make a difference locally and globally for generations to come; constantly working to influence global organizations and rallying policymakers and business leaders to bring gender equality to the front of the agenda.

"Women social entrepreneurs in the MENA region can and do have an impact in every field yet are still underfunded and under-recognized. The Unlock Her Future Prize is a transformative opportunity for the region's leading women social entrepreneurs to access not only funding but also mentorship, technical support, a global network of allies, and global exposure." – Dr Iman Bibars, Regional Director of Ashoka Arab World, Founder of the Women's Initiative for Social Entrepreneurship, and Vice President of Ashoka: Innovators for the Public.

A selection committee of experienced international business professionals and social impact experts, together with an assembly of judges comprising high-profile women from the MENA region, will review applications. Eight finalists will be selected and invited to pitch their ideas to the judges in person in London, with three winners announced on International Women's Day 2023.

The launch of its innovative platform Unlock Her Future in 2021 represents the business' continued commitment to embed its mission into regions and communities beyond the physical footprint of its 11 flagship shopping destinations in Western Europe, China and soon America.

"Our mission is to generate authentic and meaningful, scalable social progress in different regions of the world through our inspirational partners, and with a focus on unlocking the potential of women wherever they are born. We're very proud to be launching the Unlock Her Future Prize. We believe in a world in which every woman has the opportunity to achieve her full potential, to become an extraordinary change agent and a role model for future generations.", explains The Bicester Collection's Chief Culture Officer, Chantal Khoueiry.

Women based in the MENA region can apply to win The Bicester Collection’s Unlock Her Future prize! Applications can be submitted from 5 December 2022 – 31 January 2023 on the following web link here.