Conference Schedule

Tuesday 31st January 2023

Leonardo Royal London Tower Bridge Hotel

09:00 – 09:30

Registration Opens & Networking Breakfast
Tea, Coffee & Pastries

09:30 – 09:40

Welcome

09:40 – 09:50

Setting the scene
Dr Mark McBride-Wright CEng MIChemE
Founder & Managing Director, EqualEngineers

Session 1 (Opening Plenary) – D&I Leadership Panel – State of the Union

09:50 – 10:25

Chair: XXX

10:25 – 11:15

Workshop Sessions

Workshop 1

Role Models in STEM and Inspiring Young People – Alexandra Knight, Stemazing

Join us for this interactive talk on the importance of visible role models in STEM, why this engagement needs to start as young as possible and what we can all do to make a difference. Alex will present the work STEMAZING, a not-for-profit Community Interest Company, is doing to empower women in STEM to be more confident, visible role models and inspire Primary School children with STEM. Discover how you can get involved and gain inspiration for your future STEM outreach initiatives.

Women in Engineering – Building Your Career – Elizabeth Donnelly, Chief Executive, Women’s Engineering Society

Having secured a position in engineering, it’s important to have an idea of your career trajectory. This workshop will focus on the smaller steps that will take you through to your end goal, including getting noticed, planning for a career break, and how to manage unexpected obstacles.

This workshop will present tools and resources that will assist you throughout your working life to navigate a successful career in engineering.

Engineering Curriculum: Embedding Inclusion, Entrepreneurship and Global Responsibility into the Training of our Future Engineers – Dawn Bonfield MBE, Kings College London

This session will discuss the changes that are needed to the engineering curriculum to create a new breed of engineers for whom professional skills, such as global responsibility, inclusion, entrepreneurship, communication and ethics are not additional to, but central to their engineering competence. The audience will be asked to consider what changes are needed to our current curriculum and teaching frameworks in order to educate not only the students but the academics in engineering in order to embed this dimension of social and environmental responsibility, and what the mechanisms for driving this change will be.

Elizabeth Donnelly MSc FRSA MRAeS MINCOSE

11:15 – 11:40

Coffee Break

11:40 – 12:30

Workshop Sessions

Workshop 1

Engineering Inspiration: Case Study on Overcoming Stereotypes of Who Can Be an Engineer – Kevin Stenson, Chief Executive, Smallpiece Trust

Alongside Creative Access, Equal Engineers, and WES, The Smallpeice Trust is part of McLaren Racing Engage, a strategic alliance of collaborative initiatives to diversify talent in motorsport. The Trust’s role is to inspire, inform and influence students from secondary schools in McLaren’s community that meet EngineeringUK’s Equality, Diversity and Inclusion criteria; namely the proportion of students that are eligible for Free School Meals, and the proportion of ethnic minority students. This case study features McLaren Extreme E’s visit, together with McLaren’s first female racing driver, to a school where students thought “McLaren will never come to my school”.

Commercial Conflict Resolution – Richard Savage, Managing Director & Chief Negotiation Officer and Sam Macbeth, Commercial Director & Chief Negotiation Officer, Savage Macbeth

Conflict exists throughout all aspects of our lives; every day we find ourselves in situations where we manage conflict, both professionally and personally. This session is designed to address common concerns and anxieties we encounter. Confidence – what, when and how to position potentially contentious issues. Control – how can we manage both ourselves and the process better when we feel the pressure. Power – why does it feel like the other side often has most of the power, and what can we do about it? The commercial skills associated with handling these types of issues can provide enormous benefits to an individual and their organisation.

Engineering Design: Case Study on Systematic Inclusion from Heathrow Airport – Jenny McLaughlin, Project Manager, Heathrow

Design has a purpose and intent, it can either include or exclude. When we design our infrastructure, technology and process if we don’t have a wide lens that embraces human diversity, we create barriers. These barriers at best require and undignified work around, at worst can actually lead to harm. Heathrow is on a mission to become the most accessible airport for passengers, colleagues and our supply chain. Hear about the steps we’ve taken to be more systematically inclusive and where we think there should be collaboration across industry to drive the agenda further.

12:30 – 13:30

Networking Lunch

Session 2: Representation & Accessibility

13:30 – 14:05

Chair: XXX

???, Disability
XXX ReciteMe
John Bradbury, Operations Director, InterEngineering
Mara Makoni, AFBE-UK

14:05 – 14:55

Workshop Sessions

Workshop 1

Communication Skills Workshop – Making an Impact! – Wayne Hutt,

RS Group

In this workshop, participants will explore the power of verbal communication. In particular, the potency of impactful storytelling!

Participants will experience the benefits of stepping out of their respective “comfort zones”. This short, sharp, high energy session, is designed to be fun, interactive, and ultimately develop participants knowledge, skills, and confidence, on the subject of impactful verbal communication.

#BlackLivesMatter and Engineering – Where are we now? – Dr Ollie Folayan, Co-founder & Chair of Association of Black & Minority Ethnic Engineers UK (AFBE-UK)

Dr Ollie Folayan will describe the Diversity and Inclusion landscape and define the place of race and ethnicity within that landscape. The nature of racism will be described through the lens of history including what’s happened since the event of May 2020. Folayan will provide a summary of disparities within the engineering sector and he will provide tips for becoming an ally of Ethnic Diversity. The talk will also outline steps individuals and businesses can take to become more equitable.

Mental Health and Wellbeing: Managing stress at work – Abigail Kimber, Client Development Executive, MHFA England

The Health and Safety Executive estimates around 17.9 million days of work are lost per year due to stress, depression or anxiety. At MHFA England, we believe that better mental health awareness, knowledge and skills is good for everyone and recognising this is good for society. Reviewing the importance of mental health in the workplace, sources of stress and approaches to support the wellbeing of yourself and others in the workplace, we will explore the effect of mental health and wellbeing on businesses and employees. Discover how you and your organisation can manage stress in the workplace with practical tools and resources.

14:55 – 15:15

Coffee Break

Session 3: Inclusive Leadership: Creating Inclusive Cultures

15:15 – 15:40

Keynote speaker

15:40 – 15:50

Closing remarks & conference close

Conference Schedule

Tuesday 31st January 2023

Session 1 (Opening Plenary) – D&I Leadership Panel – State of the Union

Session 2: Representation & Accessibility

Session 3: Inclusive Leadership: Creating Inclusive Cultures

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