Alliance Manchester Business School is sponsoring the inaugural WIN Manchester, a leadership event for professional women and men taking place on 7 June at the UKFast Campus in Manchester.
In this 100-year anniversary of the very first women gaining the right to vote, WIN Manchester will celebrate the spirit and legacy of the Suffragettes while providing participants with inspiration, knowledge, practical tools and connections to help them succeed in their careers and prepare for the future.
The event is hosted by WIN, a global women’s leadership initiative based in Lausanne, Switzerland.
The theme of the event is “Realising Your Power and Leading Change Differently – the Suffragette Edition.” At the event, participants will learn how women with authentic power are impacting business models and bottom lines and discover how progressive companies are embracing diversity and creating inclusive environments that foster innovation.
The speaker line-up will include Alliance MBS’ Ken McPhail, Professor of Accounting, Director of Research and Deputy Head of School.
Professor Fiona Devine, Head at Alliance Manchester Business School said: “Our world-leading academics are engaged in a wide-range of research connected with gender and diversity; and across all our programmes we support the world’s future leaders to embrace diversity and foster innovation. We take our inspiration from the great city of which we are part and we are extremely proud to support the first WIN conference here in Manchester.”
We took the opportunity to interview Kristin Engvig, Founder & CEO WIN & WIN Conferences about the event and our partnership:
Why Manchester?
“For a long time now, we’ve always had a large delegation of people from Manchester attend WIN conferences. We’ve had speakers from Manchester as well and they’ve all said how we should hold something here. I visited last year and I could see how it’s a city with a history of innovation and a vibrant, enthusiastic academic and business scene that has lots to offer.”
Why have you chosen to partner with Alliance Manchester Business School?
“Business schools have an important role to play in diversity and integration as they are educating the future business leaders.
“Research is also a really important factor for our involvement with business schools – they can show us the latest research trends and keep us in touch with what’s going on in academia. I’ve also seen how the inclusion and diversity conversation, reflecting WIN’s work on bringing more ‘feminine’ qualities to work and giving it value, has affected what is taught at business schools.
“When I started working for corporations twenty years ago, there was too much focus on competition and the aggressive aspects of business. We need to humanise business which means having a balanced way of thinking about business and reacting with an emotional intelligence. I can see from discussions with academics that having a balanced - masculine and feminine approach - is starting to make a difference to organisations.”
What can we expect from the conference?
“We have some fantastic speakers at this conference that come from a real variety of backgrounds and disciplines. Our opening panel discussion includes Nazir Afzal, Former Chief Prosecutor-NW England, Caroline Roberts-Cherry, Creative Director at Saffron Cherry TV, and of course Professor Ken McPhail from Alliance MBS.
“Throughout the day, there’s going to be sessions on global issues like women’s rights and more intriguing sessions focusing on societal aspects such as giving power to do positive things, big and small. We’ll also be hearing from companies like Shell, PWC and Hewlett Packard on what they are doing to include employees beyond gender and nationality - also of different ages and from LGBTQ backgrounds.
“There will also be a really interesting interactive session on sharing dreams and how to mobilise networks. We will be finishing with a gala dinner at Albert Square Chop-house which I’m sure will be a great way to celebrate the event!”
