Women in IP / IP Out New Year coffee dates

Women in IP’s first 2021 coffee dates
Thursday 14 January 2021
4.15 pm

This set of coffee dates was a collaboration between our Women in IP and IP Out communities. All IP professionals were welcome, regardless of gender or sexuality.

Our January theme

The theme this time was “bringing your whole self to work”. To explore it, we discussed the following questions:

1. What do you think are the advantages and disadvantages to the individual of presenting their authentic self in the workplace? What aspects of themselves do you think people commonly hide and why?
2. How do you think people can be encouraged and supported – by colleagues and employers – in presenting their authentic selves?
3. How do you think lockdown has affected this issue? Is it easier or harder to present one’s whole self to colleagues, and is it more or less relevant when we are in our own homes?

We hope to publish the outcomes soon, so keep an eye on our Women in IP and IP Out pages.

Our regional hosts

As usual, there were a number of “venues” based around the country so that people could attend the get-together that worked best for them. Huge thanks to our hosts:

Cambridge – [email protected]

London – [email protected]

Midlands – [email protected]

North of England – [email protected]

Scotland – [email protected]

South West – [email protected]

Wales – [email protected]

Plus a special collaboration with our colleagues in Ireland – contact Marie Walsh at [email protected]

Read about our previous Women in IP coffee dates

These informal meet-ups are a popular way to meet new friends, share your thoughts and feelings, and generally cheer yourself up. Taking account of their supporters’ feedback, Women in IP have been varying the time of day for the events, so that hopefully everyone will have the chance to attend at least one, whatever their personal and professional schedules. The next is scheduled for 2 pm on 9 March 2021, to mark International Women’s Day: see here.

You can read the outcomes from previous coffee dates on the Women in IP section of our website. Or look for the image below in our News and Features posts.

And if you’d like to host one of these meetings in the future, we’d love to hear from you – please email Emily Teesdale.