Women In Rail West Midlands

The Sweet Taste of Cake and A Successful First Event

On Friday 30th September, there were hundreds of coffee mornings taking place simultaneously around the world, as part of a fantastic initiative by Macmillan Cancer Support. Women in Rail West Midlands were delighted to be participating in this worthy cause, which also heralded their first networking event.

A huge success, attended by over 40 people and kindly hosted at the Midland Metro Alliance at their offices in Birmingham, a total of £300 was collected for the trust.

From the outset, the steering group have expressed a strong ambition to deliver events and activities which are going to be fun and engaging for those attending.  And the coffee morning definitely met those ambitions. From the wonderful surroundings of the Victoria Square offices to the equally excellent and generous supply of mouth-watering cakes, it was a great and relaxing environment for people to network and make new acquaintances.

Additionally, the team had invited Claire Sallis, Occupational Health & Well-Being Manager at Alstom, to share some important health & wellbeing messages to the attendees.  Wanting to ensure that this complemented the aims of the group, Claire delivered this in a pub quiz style, which was very well received by all attending.

Nicki Crossland, Chair of Women in Rail West Midlands, said afterwards “We are delighted at how this event has gone, and the whole team have done an excellent job in the organisation.  It was great to host such a diverse group, with representatives from many different organisations from the rail and engineering. We were pleased to see so many men also attending; which we think sends out an excellent message of support.”  She went on to say “our aim is to hold an event approximately every 6 – 8 weeks.  Since we are keen to tailor what we’re doing to what our community wants, we are encouraging people to write in and express themselves.  By working in partnership with our community, we are confident that we can make a huge difference to the gender diversity aims WIR has committed to.”

For all enquiries and suggestions, please email enquiries@wirwm.co.uk