TGt Meets IWD Special...Miriam Zaccarelli from Bath Business Improvement District (Bath BID)

It's International Women's Day, Friday 8th March and we've had the pleasure of interviewing Miriam Zaccarelli from Bath Business Improvement District...

Tell us a bit about yourself...

After many years in local government in Melksham, I have recently joined the Bath Business Improvement District and I love that I am still a part of the wonderful community in Melksham and I get to work in the beautiful cultural and historic city of Bath.

Tell us about your business...

I work in the brilliant team at the Bath BID, led excellently by Allison Herbert, where we are all buzzing this week as one of the BID’s projects, the Bath Safe Bus, has just won the overall platinum award in the Bath Life Awards! The Safe Bus (for people who find themselves vulnerable or unwell between 10pm and 4am at the weekends) is one of 20 projects or services that we provide, as well as a radio network, safety marshals and a secure intranet system, the Bath Gift Card, Welcome Ambassadors, the Welcome To Bath website promoting events and offers in the city, the annual Business Conference, the ReBalance Bath Festival of Wellbeing, the Bath Lights the Night lantern parade at Christmas and many more.

What do you love most about your job?

I love being part of the complex network of systems and structures that work quietly behind the scenes in Bath to keep the beautiful city flowing and thriving. It is a high achieving and immensely productive team to be a part of, and I love meeting all the inspiring, talented and creative people that make Bath the amazing city it is.

What Is your proudest achievement?

I've only been at the BID for six months so apart from an impressive amount of name badges, solving a few Gift Card related dramas and helping 70 children create a crowd of magical paper lanterns for the Bath Lights the Night parade, I don't have a huge amount to shout about, but I was really proud of the ReBalance Festival that we recently hosted, and I think as a team it was a great achievement to get 220 events or offers included, promoted and celebrated around the city, raising the profile of Bath as a wellbeing centre, and bringing people into the city during some quiet weeks in the winter. 

This year’s IWD theme is ‘Inspire Inclusion’ – what does this mean to you?

To me personally it means keeping a heart of openness and involvement to every person, opinion or ability, shown through every day little workplace things like labelling photos properly on the website, providing space for people with different mental or physical needs, as well as a general awareness and respect for differing ideas, backgrounds and ways of working. I love trying to see the world through the eyes of people completely different to me and I think we have so much to learn from each other’s experience, values and ideas.

What are the biggest challenges you have faced in your career?

I have worked in some high pressure environments before joining the BID, and it seems that difficulties always arise when people are afraid. Nerves before a big event, fear of looking bad in a meeting, worry about safety or protecting against failure all seem to be the places where people behave unkindly to those around them, and it is always a challenge to see beyond the unreasonable behaviour and try to address their real concerns. 

How do you balance your business and personal life?

I am lucky that I have a lovely 45 minute bus ride to work, which provides a transition space between work and home. If something work related is bothering me, I have this transitional in-between time to think and plan and prepare for it, while sailing through the beautiful Wiltshire countryside. 

Which women inspire you the most?

I love that this is such a hard question as I have so many great role models in my life: For emotional intelligence, Brene Brown; for wisdom, Maya Angelou; for strength and resilience, my sister Esther; for difficult decisions, my friend Teresa Strange; for getting things done, my boss Allison Herbert. There are inspirational women all around us, and recently as part of the Rebalance Festival, we were lucky enough to be treated to a talk by Lynne Franks OBE, who read a really empowering passage from her book which I thought was just wonderful to hear in a business context: 

If we are talking about getting rid of the old outdated patriarchal ways of running the world, we need a blueprint of a new world based on the principles of the sacred feminine. The primary foundation of such a world is cooperation. First and foremost is between male and female. As women we know the best and most efficient ways to get things done is to work together – we need the strength of both genders to create a higher quality of life for all. It must also be a world of cooperation between business and community, human beings and the planet, national governments and NGOs, young and old, spirituality and science and our inner and outer selves. 

The opportunity to create this world does exist now. It's possible to create a society where we can bring people together and heal our families, our communities and our world. To do so would take a new breed of leaders, ones who aren't tied to the old ways of doing things. Rather than money or power, these leaders will have spiritual values to guide them and since spiritual values are at our core, it's vitally important for women to step up and take the lead in this transformation of society. 

Find out more about Bath BID HERE!