Reflections on YSW23!

Hello Dear Reader
It's the moment you've all been waiting with bated breath for! Lol jokes... but seriously I wanted to be able to write a reflective piece this week to share with you my own thoughts and reflections on YSW23 and what you have shared in your feedback too! Sorry it's long... I have a lot of thoughts and you do too!
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TL;DR: YSW23 was great, there's some improvements to make as you're expect and YSF Dates for your diary are 10th - 21st June 2024!

We opened YSW23 with our start ups in mind, with Pitch it Green - an opportunity for sustainability start ups to get in front of investors and advisors. I'm thrilled to say that there were two fantastic winners of best pitch and most investible business - Birl and Envirogood - who won access to the Google Start Ups for Sustainable Development Programme which started earlier this week! A massive thank you to the efforts of AD:VENTURE for supporting us as our Sponsor and to NorthInvest for partnering with us to deliver the event!


I think there's a lot more we can do to support our sustainability start up community in 2024, so we'll be integrating more start-up focused content into the conference, including discounted tickets specifically for start ups. Watch this space for more details!
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We then hosted our Embrace Equity event on Monday afternoon with speeches from the brilliant Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire, Anita Frost and Women in Sustainability Network founder Rhian Sherrington FRSA, Founder / Head Coach who each spoke passionately and honestly about the role of women in sustainability. I thought it was v powerful and lots of others have shared similar feedback with me.

​This event was such a great one to run and I'm hoping in the new year we'll get to host regular gatherings of a similar ilk - if demand is there? You tell me! A huge thank you to our amazing sponsors thevaluecircle who I know are keen to continue to support this community of women in sustainable leadership going forward!

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