Like all organic things, SEED has grown from early beginnings to bloom into a full, beautiful garden of activity benefiting women all over the world.
The idea for SEED literally began as a seed with Lynne Franks after she left her high profile London public relations agency in 1992. She soon became involved with women’s issues, initially by chairing the UK’s first – and only – women’s radio station – Viva.
Prior to attending the UN Women’s Beijing conference in 1995, Lynne visited New York to meet the organisers of the massive ‘off campus’ gathering of NGOs (non-governmental organisations). She proposed to hold a huge concert of women singers from all around the world that would celebrate and draw attention to the momentous Beijing conference - which up until then had been relatively ignored by the global media.
The seed was sown for a major celebratory event. Lynne’s desire to bring women together in a global network to celebrate, network and exchange ideas, manifested itself in August of 1995 in an event she produced entitled What Women Want. With the support of several women’s groups and Dame Anita Roddick, founder of The Body Shop, What Women Want featured workshops and discussions on all aspects of a being a woman – including how to use the Internet, natural health, feminine sexuality, media, art and domestic violence.
The climax of What Women Want was a sell-out concert starring Sinead O’Conner, Chrissie Hynde, Zap Mama, Sarah-Jane Morris, Angelique Kidjo, Germaine Greer, Jo Brand, sacred Irish singer Noirin N’Rian and nuns from order of Brigideen Sisters. The London Evening Standard ran a big feature with the headline “Nuns, sex and rock’n roll at Lynne’s women’s festival.”
With the success of What Women Want, Lynne saw the real possibility of creating an extensive global network where women from all social backgrounds, ethnicities and cultures could learn from and encourage each other. A major way to accomplish this was to write a book bringing her two fields of expertise – business and women’s issues – together. It was then that The SEED Handbook: the feminine way to create business was born.
The SEED Handbook launched in London on International Women’s Day, March 8th, 2000. This was fast followed by the New York launch in Bloomingdales department store. Lynne taught workshops on ‘the feminine way of doing business’ amongst the clothes rails on the fashion floors.
As the word spread about SEED and the book gained popularity, Lynne began working to fulfil her larger vision of SEED as a learning tool, support network, mentoring system, and communication cross-roads for women everywhere. She launched the SEED website, hosting a regular chat room with women from Moscow to Texas; Egypt to Singapore, all telling their stories and even silently meditating together, in cyber-space, connecting all around the world.
Lynne inaugurated a series of SEED workshops and spoke at women’s conferences worldwide, focusing on the need for women to connect and break down the ethnic, social and cultural barriers that so often divide people.
In 2004 Lynne adapted The SEED Handbook into an in-depth training programme to teach entrepreneurial women how to start and sustain a business using the feminine principles. Christened the SEED Enterprise Programme, this four-month programme is the first of its kind in that it gives women the practical tools on how to start a business combined with empowerment techniques that enables women to transform their lives.
The SEED Enterprise Programme was extensively work-shopped, shaped and honed by Lynne, working with a small group of dynamic women who have become the programme’s inaugural facilitators. After successfully piloting the core five-day, ten-module programme in association with Business Link for London, it has subsequently been taught in the east of England, with Business Links in Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire, with other regions to follow. SEED has truly taken roots nationally.
With the success of the SEED Enterprise Programme, Lynne has been hard at work creating new programmes that meet the needs of a wider spectrum of women, whether business owners, corporate employees, private individuals or charities. What remains central to the work is the theme of living and working by the feminine principles of community, connection, communication and love.
The global network is expanding and developing, making the SEED dream come true. SEED learning programmes, software, books, affirmation cards and events are all being launched in spring, 2005. Seed is becoming a garden that is changing women’s lives and truly blooming into being ‘all it was born to be’.
Like all organic things, SEED has grown from early beginnings to bloom into a full, beautiful garden of activity benefiting women all over the world.