Over two days, Friday 11 and Saturday 12 November 2022 - 47 of us gathered on Zoom, mostly from around Britain with a few from Brussels.
Our outgoing survey revealed that over half of us were practising Quakers and 62% of those at the conference were members of Quakers in Business. Not all of those contributing workshops were Quakers, and not all members of Quakers in Business at the conference were Quakers. Some respondents described themselves as ‘almost Quakers’ and ‘former Quakers’,. Such identifications are fairly typical within Quakerism which affords us a high degree of independence in how we self recognise.
Actions speak louder than words.
It was hoped that this conference would be a call to action to see what we can each do about the future of workplaces.
You can see that there was much that moved friends and Friends (Quakers) who were at the conference.
We spent the Saturday afternoon discussing what each of us feel inspired to do in 2023.
Here are some of the actions people felt led to do at the end of this session:
| Action | ||
| Advocate for my team to stick to remote team meetings whilst we take the time and energy to prepare for effective and inclusive hybrid meetings. | ||
| To care better care of myself in order to be of service to others. | ||
| Seek groups of diversity and common interests | ||
| Highlight tax injustice to the business students I teach. | ||
| To continue to identify and challenge flawed processes. | ||
| To be part of the Q and B spring gathering and discernment about strategy. | ||
| Publish my book "Quest for Wisdom" | ||
| Become engaged with Quakers and Business ongoings. | ||
| I will try to hold onto simple truths - not be bamboozled by noise and complexity. | ||
| Explore some coaching about how be a more peaceful 'trouble maker' in my professional field of work. | ||
| Simplify the structure of any organisations I am involved with. | ||
| Explore some coaching around protecting my mental health whilst being a prophet/trouble maker in the workplace. |
What we thought of the conference.
The evaluation comments, suggestions and feedback show that:
1.The range and styles of workshops were highly valued.
2. Delegates said that the level of preparation, interaction and consideration by the contributors came across strongly. They also mentioned the overall respect for people’s online health, timings for social time and breaks were easy to follow and worked well.
3.The conference delegates mentioned several senses that the level of information before and alongside the conference in the publicity, via LinkedIn, on the Q&B website, via emails and articles including in The Friend (weekly Quaker publication) , meant they felt well supported in knowing what they were coming to.
We took a number of ideas away for future conferences and pointers for better ways to do things in the future.
Outputs
Post- conference resources are available to download here
Q&B management committee is producing a small selection of videos to share on Quakers in Business YouTube channel.
Quakers and Business YouTube channel
We will be reviewing some of these videos as part of our Making Values Visible series of online workshops.
Please also share your own work, launch and join discussions in the Quakers in Business LinkedIn group which has a wide membership from around the globe.
Quakers and Business Group on Linked In
Follow us or connect your profile to us on LinkedIn.
Quakers and Business LinkedIn page
Thank you to all our contributors for their feedback and to everyone who spoke, shared or taught or listened at the event.
by Duncan Wallace
Places Work Ltd
Conference Organiser
Please visit the Members’ forum for details of an exclusive Hybrid Meeting training offer from Places work. Member-only forum: see footer below, or view at this link (please note you must be logged in to view this page)