On the 8th of November at the offices of Arup in Manchester we had an evening discussion on ‘Allies Creating Inclusive Workplaces’. Speakers included Warrick Matthews, Executive Vice President of Rolls-Royce Control Systems and Co-sponsor of Prism (Rolls-Royce LGBT staff network) and Alex Morris, Senior Civil Structural Engineer at Arup and an active member of Arup Connect Out (LGBT+ Staff Network).
Our Co-Chair Francisco Maldonado opened up the evening with an introduction about the role of the allies. Alex Morris spoke about his experiences of working for Arup and the importance of allies as part of the inclusive workplace and Warrick Matthews finished the discussion sharing his experience as an ally and his motivations to support LGBT+ equality. This was followed by some questions and answers time which ended up in a passionate and successful debate with the attendees who made special emphasis on the need of having allies at high management levels within a company. The event finished with an evening of networking and gathering impressions and ideas for future events. Thank you for all who attended the event, special thanks to Arup for hosting and thanks to Rolls-Royce, Building Equality and Stonewall for their support.
We are very happy for the great response that we are having in the North West. We have doubled the number of registrations compared to our launch night and are receiving a strong interest about our events and how to get involved as well as having the kind support of a number of organisations. Looking forward to seeing you all in our next event early next year. Happy Holidays from the North West team!