Women in Leadership Conference 2023

Hertfordshire Chamber of Commerce hosted their third Women in Leadership Conference on the 3rd March 2023 at Sopwell House, St Albans.

The Herts Chamber was delighted to welcome over 190 delegates at their Conference and was proud to see the enthusiasm that was brought to this event! The theme for this year’s Conference was skills and highlighting the important part that role models play in inspiring girls and women to follow their careers and aspirations. We are also including equity into our theme this year in alignment with International Women’s Day.

The Conference always offers an amazing platform for strong, female role models to inspire and motivate others by sharing their journey, stories, and life achievements. The Women in Leadership Conference started off by welcoming their attendees and serving refreshments whilst everyone started to network and visit the exhibition stands. The stands gave the opportunity for businesses to showcase their services and products to the 190 attendees at the event.

The businesses with exhibition stands at the Conference were: Branduin, Croft, DOHR, Gabriela Bocanete, Herts Chamber, KGK Genix, The Oak House, One YMCA, Rothamsted Enterprises, Sarah-J Coaching, Stevenage FC Foundation, Step2Skills and Ubere Mama.

Once all the delegates had arrived, Briege Leahy CEO, Herts Chamber welcomed and thanked all the guests for coming to the event. Viatris, who were the headline sponsors of the Conference, spoke about their business and why it is so important to get involved, followed by Rachel Budge, Head of Mid Corporate Hertfordshire, from Barclays Bank.

Rachel shared her career journey to date and spoke about how she started her working life in a pub and is now a Director in Corporate at Barclays, she gave a glimpse in to the ‘rollercoaster’ of how she made it there.

The first keynote speaker of the conference was Kresse Wesling CBE, who is a multi-award winning environmental entrepreneur.

After first meeting the London Fire Brigade in 2005, Kresse launched Elvis & Kresse, which rescues and transforms decommissioned fire hose into innovative lifestyle products and returns 50% of profits to the Fire Fighters Charity. The company now collects 12 different waste streams and has several charitable partnerships and collaborations across industries.

Kresse is an amazing example of a woman who followed her career dreams and now has a very successful business as well as giving back to a very special charity. Kresse went on to speak about how to build a values-based business and her experience as a women in business. The floor was then opened up to a Q&A with Kresse and some great questions were asked.

The second keynote speaker at the event was Dr. Mandeep Rai, Broadcast Journalist and Author. Mandeep is a global authority on values, working with companies, institutions, and individuals around the world.

She has travelled to more than 150 countries and reported as a journalist for the BBC World Service and Reuters, amongst others. Mandeep began her career in private banking at JPMorgan, and later worked for the United Nations, the European Commission, and grassroots NGOs before setting up the UAE’s first media venture capital fund.

Mandeep studied philosophy, politics, and economics (PPE), has an MSc in International Development from the London School of Economics, and completed an MBA at London Business School, with a year at Harvard Business School and MIT.

The delegates also heard from a selection of panellists from different sectors who discussed their journey and how they strive to inspire other women and younger generations to come, including:

• Rachel Budge, Head of Mid Corporate Hertfordshire, Barclays Corporate

• Dr Sally Ann Forsyth OBE, Chief Executive Officer, Stevenage Bioscience Catalyst

• Lucy Marangos FCIPD, Head of Group Operations, The RO Group

• Dr. Mandeep Rai, Broadcast Journalist and Author

• Shazia Khan, Global Portfolio and Process Lead, Viatris

‘‘The stands gave the opportunity for businesses to promote themselves to the 190 attendees at the event and display collateral and products.’’

The conference provided a choice of five breakout sessions for the delegates to choose from; three sessions took place in the morning and two in the afternoon, the selection of breakout sessions and speakers were:

1. Masterclass for Career success, with Jo Phillips – Exec. Coach & Mentor, MD Thelifeonyourterms.com

Jo Phillips professional Learning and Development Consultant, Qualified Executive Coach, APSCo Mentor, women’s champion, and google #Iamremarkable ambassador discussed strategies to get ahead in your career. Jo shared her strategy for success, including how to tackle imposter syndrome. Jo spoke about how she helps women go from being underpaid to closing their pay gap, how she helps her clients gain internal promotions easily and how she helps women gain more senior roles, Jo’s clients consistently achieve the roles they want yet leaving the head room to keep climbing in their career.

2. The role of businesses in skills and education, to attract and retain talent, with Claire Dolan, Deputy Principal, Strategy, Partnerships & Business Development, Oaklands College

Claire has over 10 years’ experience in educational management roles and is currently Deputy Principal, Strategy, Partnerships & Business Development at Oaklands College. Claire spoke about the ways in which further education colleges are engaging with employers to have meaningful conversations about local, regional, and national skills requirements. She also explored the skills development requirements employers have, to create a talent pipeline into the future workforce.

3. Confidence and Connections: What the Female Leader Needs to Succeed, with Shazia Khan, Global Portfolio and Process Lead, Viatris

After undertaking an MBA in Business Administration, Shazia is now the Global Portfolio and Process Lead at Viatris, a global healthcare company, where she is responsible for supporting the process of reviewing and selecting new opportunities for the future pipeline development. As a female ethnic leader, Shazia spoke about how she is passionate about helping other women succeed and she is a proud member of Viatris’ Employee Resource Group for women, which aims to provide female employees with an internal network that supports and helps them to develop.

4. Why strategic people management is key, with Liz Redway, Managing Director, Redway HR

Liz Redway has worked in HR and Leadership Development for nearly 25 years, both in the UK and internationally. Her expertise has been honed across a range of sectors including retail, scientific, education, government and notfor-profit. This session explored the similarities and differences between line management, leadership, and human resources. Attendees heard about the three levels of focus for HR, and how the third (integrated, strategic people management) is an essential part of leadership and critical to organisational success.

5. Creating opportunities for female talent in Film and TV, with Lauren Christy, Talent Manager at Sky Studios Elstree

At this session Lauren Christy, Talent Manager at Sky Studios Elstree, talked about how Sky is ensuring young, diverse, female talent have opportunities within their brand-new studio facility. Lauren discussed ideas around attracting diverse talent through entry level programmes, enabling young women to have a voice in the workplace and how Sky is thinking about career paths and opportunities for women within the film and TV industry.

The delegates at the event were engaged throughout and the atmosphere was inspiring and uplifting. Briege Leahy, CEO of Herts Chamber said: “We would like to take this opportunity to thank each and every one of you for your continued support which is invaluable to the Chambers success. We hope you all enjoyed this conference and left feeling inspired, motivated, and invigorated.”

09.03.23

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