Future Worlds, the on-campus startup accelerator at the University of Southampton is hosting a very special Fireside Chat with leadership coach, acclaimed author and public speaker speaker, Karen Catlin on Thursday 18 March 18:00-19:00 GMT.
Karen is the author of Better Allies: Everyday Actions to Create Inclusive Engaging Workplaces, a pioneering book where she shares actionable advice on how individuals can be an ally to their colleagues from underrepresented demographics. The free online event is aimed at progressing the belief that everyone, including startup founders, HR professionals, tech leaders and all members of the team, can create a culture of inclusion at their workplace – not just people who have ‘diversity’ in their job title.
Based in Silicon Valley, Karen Catlin is one of the US’s top experts on inclusive workplaces. After spending 25 years building software products and serving as a Vice President of engineering at Macromedia and Adobe, she witnessed a sharp decline in the number of women working in tech. Frustrated but galvanised, she knew it was time to switch gears.
Today, Karen coaches women leaders and supports men to be better allies for members of all underrepresented groups. Her client roster includes Airbnb, DoorDash, eBay, Envoy, Intel, Intuit and Segment as well as entrepreneurs and individuals in tech.
This will be a “no holds barred” conversation about the challenges that women, Black and minority ethnic people and other underrepresented employees face in the workplace and how to drive change as an ally.
Ben Clark, Director of Future Worlds at the University of Southampton says: “Many of us care about creating more diverse and inclusive workplaces, but struggle to know what we, as individuals, can really do. Personally, knowing how to be a better ally for underrepresented colleagues is unfamiliar territory and I can feel daunted by the challenge, but it’s too important an issue to hold back from. I’m very excited to be hosting Karen Catlin as she challenges and helps us all to use our everyday actions to be good ‘allies’ to enable others who are disadvantaged and help create more diverse and inclusive workplaces.”
To attend Karen’s talk register for free at www.futureworlds.com/fireside