Candle Holder Painting - Off The Record #4
OFF THE RECORD
Hosted by Marlene Leiss and Adishree Bansal
Take the evening off, step away from your busy to-do lists and spend a few hours painting candle holders with a room full of amazing, inspirational women.
Think glass candle holders (decent-sized, so you can actually decorate them), stained-glass paint, brushes and those translucent gems that let the light shine through. Paint a stained-glass window design, go full gem, or mix a bit of both - it's yours to make.
We'll spend 3 hours together switching off, catching up and making something crafty - and you leave with your very own candle holder.
Who this is for:
This event is for women and non-binary people only.
How many events have you been to where you left feeling like nothing actually happened? You made some small talk, you swapped a LinkedIn, you went home.
Off The Record is the opposite of that. Every seat at the table is intentional and every person in the room has been chosen because of what they are or want to be working on.
What you need to prep:
Simple. Think: What do I want (right now) that can help me get ahead?
How the event works:
The brag round: you share a win. Big or small. We are normalising women celebrating themselves in public, starting here.
The pitch round: you say "I want..." and finish the sentence. A co-founder. A book deal. A brand partnership. A raise. A new job.
The plot round: We chat as we make our journals. Who knows someone? Who's done this? Who wants in? This is where things actually move.
The move round: everyone commits to one concrete action inside your group and writes it into their brand-new journal.
About us:
Marlene is the Co-founder & COO at Calibr, part of the Apprentify Group, named the UK's 30th fastest-growing company. She exited her first startup, The Graduate Guide, a community of 30k+ people looking to break into startup careers, in December 2025. Marlene has hosted several events (big and small) with partners like Google Cloud, LinkedIn and NatWest. Her biggest dream is to have a VC fund for (only) women-led companies one day.
Adishree is an engineer and founder. She runs NexusKCG, an innovation consultancy with clients ranging from preMVP-stage startups to FTSE 100 companies, and built RITON, an HR SaaS platform for employee intelligence, as its first product. She also founded Pleasantri, a female health social enterprise, which recently closed Women@Adobe and World Vision as strategic partners. Her biggest dream is closing the gap between the 130 million girls currently out of school and the rooms they should be sitting in.
🏃♀️❌ Spots are capped at 22 people.
🧃🥨 Nice juices, soft drinks and snacks alongside the painting.
🕯️🎨 We are providing candle holders, paints, gems, brushes + everything else.