#NotAllWomenWearCapes Movember Special Featured in the Shields Gazette

Our next #NotAllWomenWearCapes event has been featured in the Shields Gazette.

And this one is going to be a little different.

On Wednesday 4 November 2026, we are opening the room up to men too for our Movember Special at The Vigilant Inn in Harton Village, South Shields.

#NotAllWomenWearCapes started as a space where women in business could come together for honest conversations, useful introductions and genuine support.

That is still at the heart of it.

But community is allowed to evolve.

And for this event, we wanted to widen the conversation.

What is the #NotAllWomenWearCapes Movember Special?

The #NotAllWomenWearCapes Movember Special is a South Shields business-community event taking place on Wednesday 4 November 2026 from 9am to 11am at The Vigilant Inn, Harton Village. For this special event, men are invited to join the community alongside women in business for conversation, connection and shared experience.

It is still the same kind of room we have been trying to build from the beginning.

Smaller.

Friendly.

Useful.

A place where people can ask a question without feeling they have to know everything.

A place where somebody else in the room may have the experience, contact or perspective that helps.

Can men attend #NotAllWomenWearCapes in November?

Yes. The 4 November 2026 Movember Special is deliberately opening the event to men as well as women. The event remains focused on useful business conversations, community, support and connection.

Why are men being invited this time?

Because some of the challenges people deal with in business are not divided neatly by gender.

Running a business can be exciting.

It can also be demanding, isolating and stressful.

People carry responsibility for clients, employees, money, decisions and sometimes far more than anyone else can see.

For the Movember Special, we wanted to make room for a broader conversation.

The Shields Gazette has highlighted that change, along with the involvement of Wayne Groves, founder of the Red Bench Project, who will join us as a guest speaker.

Wayne is expected to share some of his experience around the pressures that can come with running a busy organisation and the effect those pressures can have on mental wellbeing.

Community is more useful when people actually talk

Networking can sometimes become a room full of people waiting for their turn to explain what they sell.

That is not really what we want #NotAllWomenWearCapes to become.

The best conversations tend to be much simpler.

Someone asks:

“Has anybody dealt with this before?”

Another person has.

Somebody needs an introduction.

Someone else knows the right person.

A business owner mentions something they are struggling with and discovers they are not the only one.

That is where community starts becoming useful.

Why #NotAllWomenWearCapes matters

The events have always been about creating a space where people can:

• talk honestly
• share experience
• make useful introductions
• ask for help
• offer help
• build genuine local relationships
• learn from people outside their usual circle

The September Bring Your Brilliance morning showed exactly how much knowledge already exists in the room when people are given the chance to share it.

The Movember Special is the next step in that community, here in South Shields and across South Tyneside and the wider North East.