Allies & supporters: Rescheduled

The North of England and Midlands networks’ rescheduled “allies” event:

ALLIES AND SUPPORTERS: HOW TO BE ONE AND THE BENEFITS IT BRINGS

Tuesday 30 June 2020, 3 pm, via Zoom

IP Inclusive’s North of England and Midlands networks moved this exciting event online following the Covid-19 lockdown. In it we hosted speaker presentations followed by the chance to network with peers from across the IP professions.

This collaborative project was a follow-up to the popular London event on “Allies, advocates, and supporters” in January 2019, and provided an opportunity to hear personal experiences and learn how we can all better support our diverse communities. The original event was set to be held in late March before being cancelled due to lockdown. We were grateful to our speakers for agreeing to help us deliver it via Zoom instead.

THE SPEAKERS

We had five speakers representing the IP Inclusive communities:

• IP & ME: Kingsley Egbuonu from Managing Intellectual Property
• IP Ability: Jonathan Fogerty from CFG Law
• IP Futures: David Ewing from BAE Systems
• IP Out: Martyn Fish from HGF
• Women in IP: Parminder Lally from Appleyard Lees

THE TOPICS

Each speaker shared their experiences as well as tips for both employers and colleagues to be allies, supporters and advocates for each other. After the presentations, there were discussions in Zoom breakout rooms to share practical advice, as well as the benefits for everyone of working within an environment which promotes diversity and inclusion for all.

This free event was open to all UK-based IP professionals and provided invaluable insight as to:

• How to support diverse groups in the workplace, whatever level I am at
• How I can help make an atmosphere conducive to everyone’s success
• How I can support colleagues to feel free to be themselves 
• How my organisation can show that it is committed to diversity and inclusion

By way of pre-reading, we recommended a post about the role of allies in a post-pandemic IP profession, by panellist Parminder Lally.

THE TIMINGS

The event began at 3 pm for the speaker presentations, with breakout discussions from about 4.15 pm.

Follow-up resources

You can read a report of the event here, and access a podcast version – written and recorded by North of England committee member Joanna Thurston – here.

If you have any questions about the event, or similar events in the future, please email [email protected].