Theme: Professional Services Conference 2024

Welcome to the Professional Services Conference

Join us for the first morning of the conference, which will include an opening address, optional breakout sessions and lunch.

Knowing and using your strengths, living your values, caging your confidence gremlins, building a network in a way that works for you, and exploring your future possibilities are the essential skills to have a happy and successful squiggly career.

Join bestselling author and podcaster Sarah Ellis from Amazing If to get inspired about building a ‘squiggly career’ at the University. You may be surprised at the opportunities available across our professional services community. Join online via Zoom or watch and join the zoom chat with colleagues at the Triangle building.

Please note that guests attending the earlier session at the Triangle building will have the option to stay and watch on the big screen at the Lecture Theatre.

This session offers you an insight into the squiggly careers of some of your fellow professional service colleagues, and the bright sparks and black holes they have experienced along the way. ‘Bright sparks’ are the things that increase our energy and motivation and ‘black holes’ are the things that drain our positivity and drive.

There will also be an opportunity for you to identify the bright sparks and black holes in your own career and consider how these can help you to shape your next move in your squiggly career journey.

Find out more about how the Estates Division is working to support you to create flexible, agile spaces that promote connection, productivity and collaboration in our working environments.

A panel discussion with professional services leaders talking about their collective vision for professional services at the University. Followed by a Q&A where staff can ask leaders about change underway in finance, HR or research support, for example.

There will be talks on training and career development options for technical staff as well as updates on exciting initiatives the University will be launching as part of the Technician Commitment. Guest speakers will also explain the national progress of the scheme.

Join us for lunch at our exhibition of external professional and industrial partners as well as a relaxed poster and creative showcase made by technical colleagues. There will be prizes for entries and plenty of time for networking.

A workshop to discuss the benefits of professional registration and provide an in depth overview of the registration process, plus tips on how to successfully complete the application.

This interactive workshop is designed to provide an overview of the processes around academic publishing in the UK higher education context. We’ll discuss what authorship looks like for technical staff, introduce the ORCID ID system and provide tips for talking about attribution.

In this uplifting session mental wellbeing expert Sam Thorogood from Tiny Pause will take staff through active listening techniques to strengthen relationships and understand the neuroscience of stress, relationships and connection.

Join us to hear about the HR Transformation Programme and the benefits that myHR, the new University HR and Payroll system, will bring for every employee.

If you can't make it, the HRTP team is holding a live online version of this talk after the conference on Wed 31 Jan 2024 14:30 - 15:30. Visit the course page to book your place.

Are you a young person just starting out at the university or someone who’s been in the world of work for years? Either way, an apprenticeship could be for you. Hear from an existing apprentice and a line manager about their experiences, and learn about the range of fully funded apprenticeships available that could help future-proof your career.

We may not all be professional coaches, but we can learn some key coaching skills, so that we can have effective one-to-one conversations and support our colleagues to address challenges they are facing.

This session will introduce you to the skill of asking powerful coaching questions which can help you to better understand others and focus on providing the right level of support for them.

Join our Vice-Chancellor, Deborah Prentice, to reflect on what the conference has achieved and how we can continue to build our professional services community in the year ahead.

The closing speech will be followed by tea, coffee and pastries and the chance to chat to professional services colleagues in an informal setting.

This workshop offers an opportunity for personal reflection, based on the 5 squiggly skills: values, strengths, career community, confidence and progression possibilities. Whether leading a team, contributing to a project or as a member of the diverse university community, we all have opportunities to role-model and encourage colleagues to develop these life and career skills. Explore some squiggly ways to do this!

Do you suspect there’s an easier way of doing something? Feel like you're wasting time doing pointless steps in a process? Join this interactive session to discover a new continuous improvement tool called Kaizen to help you eliminate unnecessary work and simplify the tasks that you need to do.

Learn about how the Environmental Sustainability Team is working towards the University’s climate targets, and how sustainability can play a part in your professional life.

As part of our exhibition, why not take the opportunity to look around the labs and facilities in the Jeffrey Cheah building? Staff will be on hand to explain techniques and equipment.

Tour groups will be small so booking is essential. Register you interest now. (24 places maximum)