Lady Val's Professional Women's Network Lunch 21 October 2026

Timeline:

Networking starts 12.00pm; we sit down for a delicious lunch in a superlative venue at 12.30pm ; open mic, lunch (and speaker) ends 2.50 pm. Speedy networking from 3.00-3.45pm.

Keynote speaker: Kresse Wesling CBE

Co-Founder, Elvis & Kresse

Kresse Wesling founded an environmental packaging company in Hong Kong in 2002, and brought it to the UK in 2004. She was then involved in a sustainable mother and baby company, Babaloo, and a clothing company, Yew Clothing.

She met members of the London Fire Brigade at a training course and learned, in conversation, that their discarded fire hoses went to landfill. As the hose has a maximum permitted life of 25 years, this represented a large quantity of rubber hose being discarded each year. She and her partner "Elvis" (real name James Henrit) investigated possible uses for the material and, in 2005, set up their company Elvis and Kresse to make handbags and other accessories. The company donates half its profits to the Firefighters' Charity. From 2017 they worked with the Burberry Foundation to use offcuts from the international leather industry, turning waste material into luxury goods.

The company was first based in a mill built in 1837 in Tonge, Kent. Elvis & Kresse are now based at New Barns Farm in Painter's Forstal, Kent, in a purpose-built 370 m2 (4,000 sq ft) workshop with straw bale insulation and solar power.

Kresse has said that the greatest influence on her "sustainability thinking" was her grandmother, who grew up on a farm where "they had to grow their own vegetables in the summer or they wouldn't have food in the winter. Her generation didn’t waste anything and that attitude characterised her whole life."

Location:

Browns Covent Garden, 82-84 St. Martins Lane, London WC2N 4AG

Nearest Tube: Leicester Square

Cost:

Early Bird - £69 until 30th September 2026

Regular - £79 from 1st October 2026

CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFORMATION ON LADY VAL'S PROFESSIONAL WOMEN'S NETWORK