I mentioned earlier one of the vehicles we have created - Voices for Innovation - to help our partner community contribute to the IT debate and shape policy. Julie from VFI has just offered to help us with the next phase of our project with Trestle Group Foundation - we're taking our Empowering Women IT Entrepreneurs in Developing Countries initiative to South Africa now with help from the Director [Developer & Platform Strategy Group] out there, Danny Naidoo.

Trestle Foundation's first project with Luna Shamsuddoha from Dohatec in Bangladesh was a huge success - Luna is the only woman owner of an IT firm in that country and has faced adversity we couldn't even dream of. It's hard to fully appreciate the tenacity and strength required to be successful in that kind of environment. We take so much for granted.

Thanks to the wonderful Katie Ledger for travelling to Dhaka a few months ago to capture that story with Dana Smith - acquiring a nasty tummy bug in the process! Since we made this video, things haven't been great in Bangladesh. The government is in disarray. Dana sent us this story a few weeks ago. We send our best wishes to Luna and her family.  

I was so pleased to hear that Trestle Group's inspiring CEO, Ralph Schonenbach, was invited to present at the UN next month. I met Ralph in Manila last year and we got involved in their great work helping women entrepreneurs shortly afterwards. Who could resist.

Sheetal Mehta is on the board of the Foundation and at the recent launch of VFI in India, shared the video of Luna's story. Sheetal is a force of nature. It was through Sheetal I had the opportunity to participate in the GEM Forum where - among countless others - I met the fabulous Dr Rebecca Harding.

Not only has Sheetal helped me connect with some amazing people this month, she is doing awesome work in the realm of 'social entrepreneurship' through her company. We hope to do a lot more together in the coming months. We are now talking with the Princes Trust and Liam Black of Fifteen Foundation and numerous other organisations and individuals. We have a gathering on the 6th Feb to talk about Life, Love and The Future Of The Universe. I have a feeling 2007 is going to be quite busy!