Loved the day - many thanks for organising it!"

Thank you for a very useful and interesting day"

No real updates - much more interactive and much more enjoyable!"

Overall a really useful and beneficial event - thanks to all who were involved!"

I met people I wouldn’t normally meet in the course of my work - useful to get a different perspective"

Still difficult to network - people tend to stay in their own little groups. This is a real shame - I work in an area away from main campus so feel less connected normally!"

Guest speaker Wes Streeting
"Engaging speaker...opened up avenues of thought which may not have been prevalent otherwise" "...fascinating, particularly Wes' knowledge and understanding of different groups who struggle to achieve equality in HE..."
The question time panel...
...went down well and some of you would have welcomed another 20-30 minutes of discussion - '..a missed opportunity' as one delegate put it.

 

"Morning plenary was excellent with a range of interesting topics well covered"

"Expected opening plenary session to be more about the University as a whole - it was very much about students"

"Student guides were excellent"

Morning breakout sessions...
"Very useful - more collaborative working across the Uni please. Would love some of the ideas to be implemented"
"Gave you a lot to think about, different perspectives"
"Bit rushed, important topic though and facilitators were fab"
"Really friendly and open"
"Enjoyed every minute - would like more sessions like this"

Afternoon breakout sessions...
"Great session, I feel I can rustle up a meal in minutes now" (Cooking up a treat or two)
"Really useful to see the work of an academic department (WMG) and its relevance to the local community"
"A great opportunity to relax at the end of a long term - thank you" (Pilates)
"Trudie was excellent - clear, encouraging and knowledgeable" (Introduction to networking)
"Excellent session. It could be applied to both work and personal life. Session like this are valuable and give you a chance to network and understand other perspectives" (Leading and managing change)

 
 
Catering
"The lunch spread was very tasty and very well presented" "Really good lunch - well done to food and drink colleagues"

There were quite a few comments about the need for additional tea/coffee stations to help keep the queues down, and for hot drinks to have been available in all the breaks on such a cold day. Definitely a lesson learned for future events.

 

 

And some ideas for future events...

Use digital technologies for collaboratively creating and sharing ideas, so that we feel less like the ideas will just disappear into the ether"

Feedback a year on to see what, out of all of the suggestions made, was taken forward and implemented"

Perhaps some more fun activities that are not necessarily work related"

A little more from the academic perspective i.e. what are our academic goals and how are we going to achieve them"

More time for staff Q&A session so that a broader range can be asked and then debated"

Need to introduce on-going opportunity for staff to provide feedback and form working groups to input into University initiatives"

Sharing ideas and good practice - what about more general opportunities?"

How can we engage people below grade 7 to attend this sort of event more?"

...it could benefit from having three or perhaps even four breakout sessions in a day - the current ones are perhaps a little longer than needed..."

Please could we have longer break out sessions - WMG was so fascinating that we barely did it justice in 75 minutes"

More tours of different areas of the University"

Would be good to have speed dating/networking session and themed show-and-tell session"