Spring Forward: culture, confidence and choice

Spring Forward is a brand-new conference that will take place on 24 May in Bristol. The event is designed for women (with men also welcome) who are ready, or want to be ready, to take the next step in their career.

Sarah Pinch is the managing director of Pinch Point Communications and the chair of the Taylor Bennett Foundation. Sarah has long advocated the need for a strong professional network, particularly when encouraging women in business, and her latest venture takes that to the next level. She said: ‘Spring Forward has been a year in the planning.  I wanted to put on something that inspires women to take that next step; but also equips them with real skills to do so.’

The conference will focus on three key areas that Sarah believes are vital to the success of women in the industry: culture, confidence and choice.

The event has a mix of big name speakers – including Karen Boswell OBE, the global CEO and managing director of Hitachi Rail Europe, and Nathalie McGloin, a female racing driver paralysed from the chest down – as well as intimate workshops and focus groups.

Sarah said: ‘We have two fantastic key note speakers in Karen Boswell OBE and Nathalie McGloin, both women at the top of their chosen professions in rail and motorsport. Karen and I worked together at FirstGroup and her determination, hard work and great love of life is infectious. She is responsible for all the new trains coming onto our railways in the coming years. And I met Nathalie recently and she is so inspirational, a successful female racing driver, who is paralysed from the chest down; she’s totally smashing it!

‘And we have a great panel, drawn from the public appointments office, school governors and charities to talk about how you can get board level experience through volunteering – so you’re ready for that next step in your paid employment.’

While the aim of the conference is to explore the issues of culture, confidence and choice, there will also be plenty of time devoted to networking, ensuring the professional benefits that come from being part of such a group are felt by every attendee.

This event is just the beginning of Spring Forward, with plans for the sessions to inform a white paper due out in summer: Women and the C Words: culture, confidence and choice. How do those words hold women back currently and what can we do collectively, to change that?

For more information, and to book your tickets, check out the official Eventbrite page.