An IP Inclusive Women in IP/Finnegans/CIPA webinar
12.30 – 1.30 pm
This free webinar was a joint project between our Women in IP community and Finnegan, and was hosted by CIPA. In it we explored what our business leaders can do to promote inclusivity in the workplace and what the rest of us can do to support and encourage them.
The discussions were chaired by Lesley Evans, Leadership Consultant and Coach at Collingwood-Evans Consulting and former Chief Executive of Haseltine Lake Kempner (at the time Haseltine Lake), who led the development of IP Inclusive’s EDI Charter Group.
Our panellists were high-level IP professionals with a track record of pursuing diversity and inclusion within their own teams:
- Ben Buchanan, Deputy Director, Patents at the UK Intellectual Property Office; Diversity and Inclusion Champion and leader of the IPO’s Diversity and Inclusion Steering Group
- Suzanne Oliver, Senior Director, Legal and IP Operations at Arm; President of the IP Federation
- Anand K Sharma, Managing Partner at Finnegan and former Chair of the firm’s Diversity and Inclusion Committee
Our target audience was people in, or aspiring to, leadership and management roles, as well as more junior IP professionals who are interested in creating inclusive teams. The discussions revealed some common themes around building and nurturing diverse teams; creating a “speak up” culture where everyone’s opinions are heard and valued; taking steps to counter unconscious biases; and encouraging “bottom-up” initiatives from more junior colleagues to ensure buy-in at all levels. The panellists’ experiences provided listeners with useful ideas and practical guidance, most of them scalable for all sizes of organisation.
Live viewings in Bristol and Sheffield
Live viewings of the webinar gave IP professionals in our South West and North of England networks a chance to meet friends and share ideas as well, thanks to our hosts Withers & Rogers in Bristol and Franks & Co in Sheffield.
In case you missed it…
A recording of the webinar, along with the slides, is available here and also via our resources page.