Tobacco Dock marketing manager Sarah Whitworth shares why championing women is important to the events venue, and gives her lowdown on our International Women’s Day event last week…

The celebration and support of women in events is important to us throughout the calendar at Tobacco Dock, so when we got the chance to amplify this with the wider industry for International Women’s Day, we jumped at the chance. In common with many events companies, we have a predominantly female team and we’re delighted and proud that so many of them have progressed to a senior level.

Events industry research shows that while 75% of the workforce is female, just 25% of the leadership positions are held by women. At Tobacco Dock, we work to confront that tendency in a range of ways, from mentorship programmes to support of initiatives such as Fast Forward 15. With this ethos in mind, we were of course delighted to support micebook’s event and welcome the micebook community to the venue.

The range and balance of the speakers and the content of the day was impressive. This year’s IWD #InspireInclusion messaging was woven throughout the day, focusing on the ways we can work to help women advance and achieve throughout their careers, but also looking at how we can challenge the status quo when it comes to things like access.

Probably unsurprisingly for an events industry event, ‘connection’ was the other major theme of the day, from the keynote from the incredible Dr Elaine Kasket, who talked the way the connectivity tech and AI promise has led to a sense of disconnection with those around us, to meditation with Carmella Stenburg of Mamma Wellbeing that helped us to re-connect with ourselves as well as taking the stress levels down several notches.

The inclusion session helped us to explore ways to make sure we’re connecting with everyone in a way they can access, and the wide range of workshops were brilliant conversation starters as well as providing tools to boost confidence, find strategies to help issues like menopause and finding moments of peace and energy in a bustling day.

Moving beyond the event, we were struck by the call to action of involving men more in the conversation about inclusion and working together to find more balanced work outcomes. We’ll also be heeding Dr Kasket’s warnings about the impact of tech on our relationships and eliminating the ‘phubbing’ (phone snubbing)!