Diane Mather hosted “Collaboration Junction” on 24 August in Brisbane’s Waterloo Hotel, generously reinvesting her Women in Tunnelling Outstanding Achievement Award prize money in the tunnelling community. Forty five senior leaders from various areas and disciplines in the industry responded to Diane’s invitation journeying from near and far to not only celebrate but engage in deep questions of evolving our careers in rapidly changing working environments. This issue particularly challenges the generation impacted by times when our diversity (women, ethnicity, sexuality etc) put the brakes on our career development, and reinventing one’s career later in life is even more challenging.
Petra Zink delivered a thought provoking and engaging keynote interspersed with activities that spiced up engagement and discussion. An icebreaker activity included meeting someone that you do not know and then “googling” them. This opened the floor with laughs, connection and digital footprint surprises.
Petra challenged us to reimagine and redefine our careers to STAY RELEVANT. The days of predictability in the economy and with that, traditional career paths, are gone. Studies from the OECD show that 1.1 billion jobs will be transformed by 2030 – over 50% of us need to reskill to stay relevant by 2023 and with the rapid evolution of AI this is likely an underestimate.
We were taken on a journey of exploring exact strategies to go from being the technical expert (and best kept secret) in our workplaces to becoming the trusted authority (the Go-To) in our fields.
The palpable enthusiasm in the room, and positive feedback, reflected appreciation for the non-technical topics around leadership and personal development venturing down paths to imagine our work and career futures.
Diane’s reflections after the event include:
“It was fabulous to be able to host a face-to-face event. The energy in the room was sensational. So good to see colleagues engaging so passionately.”
“It is very special be to be trusted to bring a diverse and inclusive network of people together to acknowledge and celebrate our achievements and successes and to openly engage on the changing landscape of the future of work and our careers.”
“The Women in Tunnelling Outstanding Achievement Award, demonstrates that the engineering industry and very male dominated disciplines and organisations such as the ATS are recognising the need for inclusion and diversity to be fundamental for growth and the importance of recognition and celebrating achievements and success in our careers.”
ATS Members attendees Feedback:
“The event highlighted the diversity in our industry and was inspiring to make new connections. The inclusive vibe in the room provided a space were talking to a stranger felt easy and enjoyable and the exchange of work and life experiences was supported through the keynote. Thank you, Diane for a creative idea and investing your time to host such an enjoyable and inclusive event.”
Annalena Chapman (QLD ATS Vice Chair and DiT secretary)
“Huge fun, uncomfortably challenging, disarmingly provocative, and simply epic – both Diane and the event! More please!”
Derek Pennington (DiT committee member)
