The event took place out of town in Farnborough but despite this, it attracted many people.
As Chair of NAWIC LDN since 2013 ,I have attended and hosted hundreds of diversity driven events related to our industry but a few less looking beyond it. Hence, I was looking forward to this one.
The event was very well organised and attracted many big brands across a wide range of industries (worth noting, there were no built environment representatives) .
The talks were super interesting and full of practical insight.
For example accountancy business Grant Jones Accountancy run a great hands on workshop to help business owners assess how their business is performing, identify priorities and understand the many hats one needs to wear when running a business.
Their top tip for reading, was the E-myth ... for the Architects out there, I would in fact recommend the E-myth Architect
Another talk I was impressed by was led by sales expert karene Lambert-Gorwyn who spoke about the need to understand the value of one's work in order to convey it clearly to new clients .
She also emphasized the need to be clear of the long term benefit one's work can bring to a client at the time of presenting a fee proposal, for example (a top tip for designers )
The thing I found most fascinating is how she ended the talk by selling a course she does following exactly what she had just explained and almost avoiding to show she was doing so ....truly remarkable
Finally, at the Pep Days stand , we heard about Conscious Leadership by Neil Seligman.
Many interesting ideas were discussed (I am looking forward to reading his forthcoming book on the topic) but the two which stuck with me are the need to push back to protect from the draining impact of continuous thinking and a great quote he shared:
Look closely to the present you are constructing. It should look like the future you are dreaming .
All an all it was a very interesting event and I can't wait for next year's .
