by Kirsten Wells, Recruitment and Admissions Administrator, MiF
On Friday 9 March, I was invited along with colleagues from the Global Outreach and Admissions teams to the London Business School Women in Business Conference. Now in its 18th year, the conference has been a forum for female and male professionals and students to engage with issues women face in dynamic business environments. It is run by LBS’s Women in Business Club and features speakers and panellists from all aspects of business and all walks of life. The audience was also visibly different to previous years – around 20% of the attendees were men, which was very encouraging to see!
This year the theme was Working Together: From Awareness to Results and the conference focused on exploring ‘concrete, practical solutions that men and women can undertake together to realise the changes so clearly needed in our workplaces and beyond’. The conference included keynote speakers and panel discussions between male and female business leaders on topics such as manbassadors and driving change in traditionally undiverse industries. There were also skills breakout sessions to further hone our understanding of current challenges and solutions. The day provided plenty of fantastic networking sessions too.
My favourite parts of the day included the Implementing Vision panel, led by Charlotte Sweeney with discussion between extremely powerful female HR professionals from companies like Accenture Strategy, Unilever and Goldman Sachs, and also Dr Laura Wendt’s breakout session on Confronting and Preventing Everyday Biases. The latter was particularly interesting as Dr Wendt has a neuroscience background and now works with AT Kearney as a global manager of diversity and inclusion. She, perhaps refreshingly, admitted her own unconscious biases and her strategies to overcome them. Dame Cilla Snowball, Group Chairman and CEO of AMV BBDO, closed the day with a fantastic insight of her experiences within the advertising industry, specifically her company’s work in promoting experiences of women and diversity within their creative work, including this run of adverts for Malteasers within the United Kingdom.
Another highlight for me was seeing some of the Global Outreach and Admissions teams’ hard work come to fruition. Across the Masters in Finance and MBA programmes, we invited some current MiF admits and MBA Round 2 interview candidates to both the conference and to a networking reception following the day. I got to meet with so many fantastic women and look forward to welcoming them to the LBS community in August.
Thank you to the Women in Business conference organising committee for arranging such a fantastic conference and to all the amazing sponsors who make the event possible. I look forward to attending again next year!