Registration for this event has now closed
We are joining forces with Innovate UK for this event to:
- share how we are working together to support the UK economy’s growth by ensuring innovation-led businesses and engineering companies have the talent and skills needed to thrive
- bring together each organisation’s expertise to enrich a common audience.
The event’s highlight will be a conversation between Dr Hayaatun Sillem CBE, the Academy’s CEO, and Indro Mukerjee, CEO of Innovate UK. We will also launch Culture+, our new equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) platform, developed in collaboration with The Honeycomb Works.
Register for the event below, and explore the full programme and workshop details within the More Details tab.
The event will include discussions on the links between inclusive cultures and inclusive innovation. You will join interactive workshops to practically engage with key topics and discover how to improve practice in your organisation.
Register has now closed
If you have any questions, please contact Erik Tomlin at [email protected].
Accessibility
It is very important to the Royal Academy of Engineering that our events are accessible to all. If you have any accessibility requirements, please contact Erik Tomlin, EDI Platform Manager, Royal Academy of Eningeering, at your earliest convenience so that necessary arrangements can be made.
Contact details: [email protected].
Diversity monitoring form
The Academy is committed to building an inclusive economy that works for everyone. To help us achieve this, we would like to collect soma basic anonymous data about the event attendees. If you would like to help, please complete the diversity monitoring form by logging into your user account on our website and completing ‘Update my D&I data’.
The event is in partnership with Innovate UK
The conference will provide tangible support to startups and small- and medium-sized organisations, placing emphasis on the importance of inclusion in innovation. The Academy is focused on building inclusive cultures in engineering by providing tools and resources to support and challenge organisations, with initiatives such as Culture+ and multi-year inclusive cultures research. This complements Innovate UK’s awards focused on inclusive innovation and unlocking potential, supporting organisations to bring inclusion into each aspect of their business model.
Programme
| 9.00am | Registration and refreshments served |
| 9.30am | Welcome and housekeeping |
| 9.35am |
A conversation with Dr Hayaatun Sillem CBE, CEO of Royal Academy of Engineering Indro Mukerjee, CEO of Innovate UK |
| 10.10am |
Panel discussion: Inclusive innovation Hephzi Pemberton, Chair and Founder - Equality Group James Adeleke, Founder and CEO - Generation Success Omar Massoud, Co-Founder - Autsera Ed Warner, Founder and CEO at Motionspot Chaired by: Abigail Hird, Founder and Director - Defankle Innovation |
| 10.55am | Networking break |
| 11.10am |
Introducing Culture+ Melissa Sabella, founder and CEO of The Honeycomb Works, will give us a tour of the Academy's new platform designed specifically to support growing engineering organisations while sharing the most important elements to creating an inclusion strategy that has impact. |
| 11.20am |
Panel discussion: Building inclusive cultures James Kusena, PhD, Vice President of Operations, MicrofluidX Joanna Whiteman, Head Of Diversity and Inclusion, Royal Academy of Engineering Elspeth Finch, CEO and Founder of IAND Chaired by: Melissa Sabella, Founder and CEO, The Honeycomb Works |
| 12.05pm | Lunch |
| 1.15pm | Breakout sessions round 1 |
| 2.00pm | Break / move rooms |
| 2.15pm | Breakout sessions round 2 |
| 3.05pm | Closing remarks |
| 3.15pm | Drinks reception |
| 4.30pm | Close of Event |
*Programme subject to change
Workshop descriptions
Unlocking EDI Success
Are you sure your company culture is sustainable as you scale your business? Are you being inclusive through your recruitment practice? Do you want to know what everyone else is doing in this space? In this session, organisational behaviour specialists The Honeycomb Works will highlight common Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) challenges faced at different stages organisational development and proven strategies for overcoming them. You’ll then have the opportunity to connect and collaborate with other organisations, sharing your challenges and successes and supporting each other to create tangible actions you can implement to help move your organisation forward.
Impact Investment: What do investors want to know about your commitment to inclusion?
Increasingly, funders are looking for more beyond innovative ideas and products to the organisations behind the innovations, ensuring they are sustainable and inclusive in the way they approach their designs and support their teams. In this session, investors will discuss how inclusion drives innovation and elevates long-term investment value, with insights from real-world examples, why they care and how can you showcase this.
Inclusive Innovation: Human centred design, engineering and innovating
Discover what we mean when we talk about inclusive innovation. What are the benefits to designing innovations that could be universally accessible or meet the needs of an underrepresented community? In this session we discuss the consequences of exclusion in innovation and engineering, let’s think about how, if we worked collaboratively and took a human centered approach, we could build more inclusion into our innovation practices.