Released On 10 November 2016
The latest from Cityparents HQ
Cityparents HQ has been buzzing since we returned from the summer break, and we have news of celebrations, a successful conference and two exciting developments to share with you.
Early September heralded the start of our autumn schedule of events with our first seminar being, appropriately, on the topic of ‘Back to School’. With another 27 events in the diary before Christmas, there is plenty of choice for our Cityparents and Cityprofessionals communities to choose from, including a repeat of the highly praised seminar on children’s mental health by the charity Place2Be and a new seminar on Personal Brand later this month. For highlights of recent and upcoming events, click here or you can browse our full list of events for the next 12 months here.
Committee updates
You may see some new Cityparents faces at your next event – we’ve been expanding our Hosting Committee and are delighted to welcome onboard Louise Skinner, Rachel Kerrone, David Murphy and Jenny Sargeant. They are all long-standing members of Cityparents and are now helping to ensure our events run smoothly on the day by greeting members, introducing our speakers and keeping an organised eye on proceedings. We are very grateful for their support.
Celebrating 4 years as Cityparents
In early October we officially celebrated reaching 4 years as Cityparents, with a drinks party hosted by RBS at which we were joined by a number of our corporate members and seminar providers. Louisa Symington-Mills shared her story of coming up with the idea of Citymothers back in late 2012 and how it has grown to become the Cityparents you know today; Helen Beedham shared a snapshot of our future plans before Professor Heather McGregor, the Executive Dean of Edinburgh Business School - known by many for the past 17 years as Mrs Moneypenny of the eponymous FT column - entertained us all with her experiences as a working parent in the City.
Accelerator Day success
“Being able to meet other parents in the same situation as you and hearing their experiences was truly rewarding”…. “I loved the keynote speeches - both Samantha and Tanya were fantastic and inspiring” … “Having the opportunity to consider my career development and networking with other professionals was most beneficial”.
These are just a few of the appreciative comments shared afterwards by members who participated in our inaugural Accelerator Day conference on 14 October. Kindly hosted by EY at their fabulous conference space in Canary Wharf, the Accelerator Day offered members the chance to hear from a number of our most popular seminar providers and to network throughout the day with other City professionals and parents.
You can view the full conference programme here and get a feel for the discussions here.
We were delighted to welcome as our two keynote speakers the broadcaster and journalist Samantha Simmonds who challenged ‘the myth of the work life balance’ and the clinical psychologist, writer and presenter Professor Tanya Byron who gave a riveting explanation of how to help children fulfill their potential. You can read extracts from Samantha’s talk in ‘An Interview with … Samantha Simmonds’ and an abridged version of Tanya’s speech in our ‘Parenting Tips from the Professionals’ article.
We are very grateful for the fantastic support from all the EY team in making the day such a success.
Major milestones
Two weeks ago we welcomed onboard our 10,000th member, Angela Norris from Pinsent Masons. To mark this milestone, we’ve invited Angela to tell us about her experiences of balancing work and family life, why she decided to join Cityparents and what she hopes to gain from her membership … hear her story here.
Time for a breather after all these exciting highlights? Certainly not! We have two new initiatives launching soon that we want to share with you….
New initiatives
Many of you will know about Cityparents Policy Works our quarterly forum where HR and Diversity & Inclusion professionals from our 80+ corporate members meet on a quarterly basis to share best practice in supportive workplace policies. From the end of this year, we’ll be expanding this into a new, separate network called Cityworks that will have its own membership, website and a separate stream of events, all aimed at supporting HR and D&I professionals across the City.
Later in the first quarter of 2017, we’ll also be launching Cityflex, our new jobs site that focuses on flexible career opportunities across a range of ‘City’ professions. Cityflex enables professionals to find flexible roles that suit their expertise and their availability and allows City employers to access a fantastic talent pool of potential resource. More information about Cityworks and Cityflex can be found here or you can contact Helen and Louisa respectively at Cityparents.
In the meantime
Don’t forget you can also keep in touch via our Facebook page, Twitter account and Linked In group where we post our latest news and a regular feed of articles, resources and insights – and we’d love to hear from you!