By Mia Tarrant, Process Scientist, Severn Trent
It’s been another busy quarter for the Rising Stars, starting with a workshop with Water Aid hearing about their strategy for the next year and how we can all be involved in raising awareness and support.
In September, the rising stars played a big role in the Institute of Water’s Annual Conference. The busy 4-day trip to Cardiff started off with the rising stars facilitating discussions in a ‘Meet the Leaders’ event, where we were able to have great conversations with some industry-familiar faces. Day 2 was a jam-packed day at the conference, networking and hearing some thought-provoking discussions around trust in the industry. Day 3 carried on the theme of trust, whereby the rising stars were invited to both facilitate and be panellists on their own session, discussing the topic of trust with someone new to the industry. Some really interesting points were made, including, “have you been told your manager trusts you?” Despite being the last-but-one session to conclude the conference, it was a brilliant session with an engaging question and answer session. This was a great way to conclude the conference as it was many of the rising star’s first time on a panel.
The final day in Cardiff was spent at Arup, hosted by Welsh Area Rising Star, Kathryn Evans. The day began with a leadership and career insights workshop, followed by a discussion around modelling and catchments. This ended with a trip to see Cardiff’s innovative rain gardens.