Winners of this year’s Inspire Awards with their trophies
More than 200 attend Diversity and inclusion conference and awards.
Over 200 construction professionals gathered at the Hilton, Deansgate, Manchester for this summer’s Inspire Summit – an event which acts as a platform for encouraging debate around diversity and inclusion in the construction sector.
The CIOB supported the summit, which included a conference and the Inspire Awards. Celebrating diversity in UK construction, engineering and housing, the awards comprise 16 categories including: most inspiring building project; most inspiring mental wellbeing initiative; most inspiring housing provider; and most inspiring diversity champion 2019.
Rebecca Thompson, CIOB past president 2017/18, gave the keynote speech at the conference and experts and industry leaders debated a wide range of topics from tackling unconscious bias and implementing inclusive recruitment strategies, to attracting a more diverse workforce for the future and building the business case for diversity.
Campaigner and fundraiser Claire Lomas MBE, who became paraplegic as a result of a riding accident in 2007, gave a motivational and inspiring speech at the awards ceremony.
Guests included Chris Keast, chair of CIOB’s Diversity & Inclusion SIG; Christine Gausden, CIOB Trustee; Hazel Yorke, DM CIOB Northern; Katrina Percival, MSEC CIOB North West; Tom Francis, chair Manchester Hub; Steve Dunn, chair Novus Liverpool; Nicola Hodson, vice chair Novus Manchester; Freya Woodward from Novus Manchester; and Bella Platts, chair Novus East Midlands.
