London, Nov 29 (ANI): Dana Perino, former press secretary to ex-President George W Bush, has come up with the idea of ‘minute mentoring’ where aspiring career women are given tips on how to make it big in their respective areas of interest.

“I thought: wouldn’t it be good if we could get these girls together with women to act as mentors - then, like speed dating, run through very fast, as the mentors don’t have much time, and ‘mentees’ pick things up very quickly,” Times Online quoted Perino, as saying.

For the first such meet, 15 renowned volunteers from business, media, politics, public relations and lobbying mentored women.

The mentors included the likes of Dee Dee Myers, former press secretary to President Bill Clinton, Candy Crowley, CNN’s senior political correspondent and Anita McBride, chief of staff to Laura Bush.

All young women attending the event were assigned a colour and a letter of the alphabet, dividing into groups. They were given a room where they spent 10 minutes with one of the mentors before the bell signalled them to move to the next one.

Megan Bloomgren from the US Chamber of Commerce, who participated in the event, said: “It was a very powerful event, really empowering.”

She said Crowley’s advice to “always be a class act” and “never let your enemies know who they are” was one of her favourites.

She also liked Democratic strategist, Maria Cardona’s suggestion of reading the classics.

Perino, 37, has now received tens of thousands of emails from women requesting for similar sessions.

She said: “I’ve had emails from London asking me to organise one there.” (ANI)