Almost 100 women plumbers and gas engineers joined together for the second time at this year’s WIT Conference on 4th July.
A packed house participated in the second national gathering of female plumbers, heating engineers and trainees, media and industry representatives and the event seems to have pleased everyone who attended.
Hattie Hasan, founder of Stopcocks Women Plumbers, organisers of the event, said: “We’re completely Stopcock-a-hoop at the responses to the event this year!”
Staff at the venue (The Building Centre in London) came to see and comment on the ‘fantastic atmosphere’, several sponsors said how ‘refreshing’ it was to participate in such a ‘positive’ and ‘forward-looking’ event, and how engaged the delegates were. Comments included:
“The feedback from my team was exceptional”
“It was an inspiring day and amazing to talk to the other girls/women about their stories as well and to know that everyone is in the same boat as myself.”
“I would love, love, love to be a part of it again next year”
“Well worth the 260-mile round trip!!!”
Following a light breakfast and coffee, the day began with a training session by Polypipe’s Learning and Development Business Partner, Jazz Jones, on Emotional Intelligence for Advanced Relationship Management. The session helped the delegates to determine what areas of Emotional Intelligence they may need to work on to successfully run a business and get best outcomes from interactions with customers and colleagues. It was well received by the highly engaged group and we had some great feedback about Jazz and how useful the Installers found it.
Next up was Anna Hemmings MBE, a double Olympian and six-time World Champion kayaker. Anna told her story, bringing several delegates to tears of excitement at the video of her winning her first gold medal. Anna’s talk focused on fostering a ‘Growth Mindset’ and having the right team backing to triumph against the odds.
After lunch, Stopcocks founder and the inspiration behind the event, Hattie Hasan, spoke; telling how she broke away from the life a Turkish Cypriot girl in the 70s was destined for (that of an obedient wife and mother) and became first a teacher and then a plumber and gas engineer, before establishing Stopcocks Women Plumbers as a national brand and finally the world’s only franchise helping women plumbers become successfully self-employed, before starting the now annual Women Installers Together conferences.
Brand new at this conference and likely to become a fixture was Famous for Five Minutes, in which the speakers were two trainees taking very different paths to become plumbers, Daisy Sharples and Lauren Winter, and an established plumber employed by Mears Maintenance, Ruth Pollard.
Like Hattie, all of these women look set to change the industry, with Ruth planning a Land’s End to John O’Groats cycle ride in September to raise awareness of Women in Construction.
Finally, there was the raffle; prizes donated by some of the sponsors and other supportive manufacturers went to several lucky installers, and all that was left was to meet one another and all the sponsors, which the delegates took full advantage of.
To be involved in next year’s WIT Conference, call 07706 763883 or email [email protected]
