Whose responsibility is it to make sure our workplaces are diverse?

My main thought is that it's a shame this is just one event, I can see the strong benefits of it being "in person" rather than online, but given that it would be good if there could be a number of these distributed around the country. Laura Norton Are there any plans for that? 

Thanks,

Andy

Thanks Andy.

You're right, this is just one annual event, focused on race, ethnicity and socio-economic status, as part of delivering our EDI strategy You can see some of our other EDI activities that happened in 2021 in our Year in review. 

You make a very good point about location, it's important that we think about locations accessible to other parts of the UK and beyond with our EDI events.

There is an option to register for this particular event as an online attendee within the registration process which I hope helps some people to access the event who aren't or can't be in London. It would be great to welcome you and colleagues if you're able to attend online. 

Thanks, 

Laura 

Thanks Andy.

You're right, this is just one annual event, focused on race, ethnicity and socio-economic status, as part of delivering our EDI strategy You can see some of our other EDI activities that happened in 2021 in our Year in review. 

You make a very good point about location, it's important that we think about locations accessible to other parts of the UK and beyond with our EDI events.

There is an option to register for this particular event as an online attendee within the registration process which I hope helps some people to access the event who aren't or can't be in London. It would be great to welcome you and colleagues if you're able to attend online. 

Thanks, 

Laura 

Thanks Laura,

Ah yes, I see the "Online Delegate" now, which I had missed, but yes more events elsewhere would be good, and to allow for those of us who will be on holiday on the 1st August

Also, 

Laura Norton said:

to engineer a better world for all

Laura Norton said:

other EDI activities that happened in 2021 in our Year in review. 

There's lots of great work in the review on improving EDI in engineering employment, which I absolutely agree is important, but not so much about encouraging engineers to consider EDI in their end users? I do notice the work with the Digital Poverty Alliance, which is one hugely important area of this. But, for example, an area that is becoming critical is the elderly being similarly excluded from society through the "digital only" world - most of us who are trying to support elderly parents or other relatives will have come across this issue. However diverse the engineering workforce is they will still have one aspect in common - they will be engineers, and they somehow need to consider the needs of those who are not comfortable with technology. I do feel this is an important part of EDI, not just considering the diverse needs of your colleagues, but also considering the diverse needs of your end users. 

Apologies that's rather off topic, but if there are any plans for more work in this area it would be great to hear about it. But of course not to detract at all from the huge amount of EDI improvements needed inside the profession. 

Thanks,

Andy

Not off topic at all Andy, we need diverse engineers so that we get outputs for diverse end users - so important for us to think about inclusive design and outputs. 

Andy Millar said:

an area that is becoming critical is the elderly being similarly excluded from society through the "digital only" world

To be fair though Andy, I think there's an assumption that the young understand modern technology too. I'm no spring chicken myself but am constantly surprised at the lack of tech skills I witness in the generations younger than me!  I'm also happy to see it when older generations fully embrace tech as well. I know quite a few silver surfers nowadays who regularly immerse themselves in the digital world.