AQ WiT event in partnership with British Red Cross

We held our latest AQ Women in Tech event last week, part of a series of Women in Tech & Digital, this time held in partnership with British Red Cross at their headquarters. This event focussed on Resilience, chosen from a survey we conducted with the members of the AQ Women in Tech group, focusing specifically on discovering the skills, techniques and mindsets to help overcome obstacles and build self-confidence. The event created a safe space for the attendees to come together to share experiences, insights and learn from each other and our expert panel. 

The event was co-hosted by Grace Tattersall, AQ Partner, and Sapna Babbar, British Red Cross Head of Portfolio Management. Both AQ and British Red Cross are passionate about providing an environment which promotes inclusion, and British Red Cross’ strong focus on digitally enabled technology, along with having a diverse talented leadership team, made them an excellent partner host.

British Red Cross perfectly kicked off the event by sharing experiences and insights from within their organisation, presenting on the use of data and insight to advance our humanitarian purpose, and wellbeing and allyship and the next generation from a male perspective. These two subject areas were incredibly popular with the attendees, and we look forward to reflecting and discussing these topics in more detail at future events.

The main panel, which was brilliantly chaired by Femi Otitoju, Founder of the EW group, included:

• Cat Harwood Smith, Director of Insight & Improvement – UK Operations at British Red Cross
• Sapna Babbar, Head of Portfolio Management at British Red Cross
• Jude Howarth, Head of Data Product at Funding Circle UK
• Sarah Oyet, Head of Infrastructure and Applications Support at London South Bank University

The panel provided deep personal insights about their career journeys and lessons they had learnt, discussing how to build and retain your personal confidence when dealing with barriers, long term strategies used to survive and get ahead in tech, and advice they would offer to women who find it difficult navigating many layers of management in their organisations. It was an incredible interactive event, with audience member participating with questions and their own insights.

Some key takeaways from the event were:

• Resilience can’t and should never be a tick-box on a job description; resilience should be nurtured in the workplace, creating environments where support and opportunities are the norm, allowing everyone to develop the strength to face challenges head-on. Whether leading teams or navigating your own careers, we should all commit to building cultures that empower resilience in everyone.
• Apologise less – we need to be more mindful of using “soft language” or starting sentences by apologising, as this can then be quite self-deprecating – trust instincts and be firm but diplomatic; say “sorry” less, and instead say “thank you”, repositioning the conversation from focusing on the flaw to finding a positive.
• You should not see using “soft language” or having “soft skills” as a negative thing, there are strengths in these skills that help build relationships and networks due to demonstrating authenticity.
• There are times in which you can and should do everything in your power to resolve a situation, but there are other times that you should reflect and choose to walk away – sometimes walking away can lead to new and better opportunities.
• It is vital to continue to open doors for colleagues, being supportive managers and peers, so people are able to access opportunities; we should support people to navigate hierarchy, by inviting them into senior meetings, and involving them in different projects, allowing them to gain insight and develop quicker.
• If you’re facing a difficult situation, never suffer in silence. You should always ask for help, and if the first person doesn’t listen, keep asking until you find someone who will.

On a wider note, it was great to receive such positive feedback about the AQ Women in Tech group, and how much having the network means to the members.

Malvina Gooding, an interim IT leader, said:

“The AQ WiT events are an exceptional way for women to experience and share the good and bad of their careers, whilst also sharing practical advice on how to solve the problems we all experience. The biggest thing is that they get to network and become friends, find a support system you might not have within your organisation – it is invaluable”.

Shipla Nemani, IT/Digital Transformation Project Manager at London South Bank University, said:

“It was really lovely to attend another wonderful AQ Women in Tech event. These events never cease to inspire and motivate me. Such strong, capable women, so fitting to be on the panel to boost us all on resilience. Well done to all!”

Save the date

The next event for our AQ Women in Tech group will be a webinar held on Thursday 14 November exploring Non-Executive portfolios; our members said they’d like to hear more about Non-Executive careers, therefore Helene Usherwood, Anderson Quigley’s Board recruitment lead, will be co-hosting with Fiona Hathorn, CEO at Women on Boards, sharing insights on how you can develop a NED Portfolio, and talk about the demand for tech and digital specific skills on Boards. If you’re interested to find out more, please contact patrick.worthington@andersonquigley.com.

If you aren’t already part of the AQ Women in Tech network, and would like to join, or you are interested in being part of future event panels, please do get in touch with Grace Tattersall at grace.tattersall@andersonquigley.com or connect with her on LinkedIn.