International Women’s Day #BalanceforBetter
pro-manchester's Equality, Diversity and Inclusion committee and the Future pro committee have joined forces for International Women's Day. The official campaign theme this year is #BalanceforBetter and the panel will discuss how companies can achieve balance across all aspects of their business.
Balance is not a women's issue, it's a business issue. The race is on for the gender-balanced boardroom, a gender-balanced government, gender-balanced media coverage, a gender-balance of employees, more gender-balance in wealth, gender-balanced sports coverage ... but how do we go about achieving this?
About the Speakers:
Bethan is an award-winning speaker, coach and entrepreneur. She founded the empowerment network High Flying Women in 2017 and now coaches busy professionals how they can live their version of success without sacrifice. She is also the co-founder of the change-makers mastermind group for entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs looking to increase their impact.
Laura McGowan holds the position of Group Head of People at MediaCom North with responsibility for approximately 500 staff across 5 offices. With 18 years of HR experience gained across a variety of sectors, Laura heads up the People team who are responsible for delivering on all employee related activity as well as driving initiatives relating to Diversity and Inclusion, Wellbeing, Mental Health and Future Talent. The focus that MediaCom North have put on D&I activity, in particular around Neurodiversity, has been award winning so far with the business having been awarded the “British Dyslexia Association Organisation Award 2018” for the recognition and adjustments made to embrace a diverse workforce both currently and into the future. Outside of work, Laura is a keen traveller, reader and enjoys watching sport – particularly if the mighty Leicester City are playing!
Beckie is an Ambassador for Tech and Women in Leadership, and the Co-founder of Women in Technology Northern Chapter. In 2017, she launched Tech Returners, to empower returners and enable their opportunities in tech, by providing development and creating accessible routes into businesses through continual training and technology, resulting in more diverse and inclusive workforces. This work has seen the project shortlisted in the Northern Power Women awards for Innovation 2018 and for e-skills Initiative of the year at the Women in IT award 2019 for its practical guidance, and personal development coaching.
Also, Beckie has recently launched a Tech Future Female Leaders programme where female tech leaders Develop themselves to Succeed to then Inspire others through being role models.
Beckie has also been shortlisted in the Women in IT Awards 2017 Advocate of the Year and Voted on of the Top 30 women in tech for Greater Manchester 2018.
Nik has been Managing Partner of Brabners LLP since 1st May 2018, having first joined the firm as a trainee solicitor in 1995. Nik is a keen ally and vocal champion and advocate for ambition and positive change, including in relation to ED&I. He is one of the shortlisted finalists for the Transformational Leader award at the Northern Power Women awards due to take place at Manchester Central on 18th March. Nik is also a trustee of Michael Carrick Foundation.
Sarah leads IPPR North, IPPR’s dedicated think-tank for the north of England.
She is an expert in regional and local economic development, place resilience and land use planning, and has written reports for IPPR North on small and medium sized cities and towns, participative democracy and civil society.
Before becoming Director of IPPR North in May 2018, Sarah worked for the think-tank as a Senior Research Fellow, taking the lead on ground-breaking work including a ‘Great North Plan’ a ‘Natural Assets Strategy for the North’ and collaboration with the People’s Powerhouse movement.
Sarah believes passionately in the importance of speaking on behalf of the people and places that have so far been left out of the Northern Powerhouse debate. She makes regular appearances in the media, and is a regular speaker at key conferences and events.
Interested In The Event?
If you’re interested in attending, you can book online here.
