Last week I had the opportunity to attend the Women’s Engineering Society (WES) Annual Conference with Mechanical Design Engineer, Maria. Throughout the day, we joined a range of insightful seminars led by some influential women in engineering – covering everything from career journeys to the future of the industry. It was a great experience, and it gave us lots to think about.
The day opened with Dr Katherine Critchley, WES President, who welcomed us to the event. This was followed by a talk from Usha Raghavachari from Ford, who spoke about business improvement and the concept of creating real intelligence by bringing together human and machine insights.
Next, we attended a panel discussion on ‘Return & Retain: Unlocking STEM Talent in Industry and Research’. The women on stage talked about returning to work after periods of absence and how the industry can address the skills gap by making it easier for STEM professionals who have taken a career break to get back into the workforce.
After a coffee break, we learnt about the ‘Science of Power and Influence’ with Christina Brugger. This seminar discussed how women are often treated differently in the workplace and she provided practical tips and tricks to improve confidence, especially in meetings.
Overall, I really enjoyed attending the WES Conference with Maria. I’d not really had the opportunity to speak to her before, even though she also started her career as an apprentice at Reliance. It was interesting to get to know someone new, whilst going to a new event like a conference which is something I’d not experienced before. We both said that we’d like to return to the conference next year – ideally with some more of the female engineers from Reliance!
