The UK’s first Festival of Leadership is to be staged in Bristol, with the city’s mayor Marvin Rees among its top-level speakers.
The festival is the result of collaboration between UWE and the London-based Leadership Centre and will have the theme of ‘rethinking leadership for an uncertain world’. Its three key streams will be innovation, resilience and people, place & politics.
Organisers of the three-day next month said it will inspire creative thinking and encourage collaboration and innovation across and beyond public, private and voluntary sectors.
It will take place at Harbourside venues including M Shed, Watershed and the Energy Hub and will incorporate a range of keynote talks, discussions and interactive workshops set to engage participants and mobilise fresh thinking and new ideas.
Confirmed speakers include: Founder of Riverford Guy Watson; public speaker, author and founder of Embercombe Tim ‘Mac’ Macartney; founder of 91 Ways to Build a Global City and chair of trustees at Frank Water, Kalpna Woolf; chief transformation officer, Horizons Group, NHS England, Helen Bevan; senior lecturer in public policy, Harvard University, Marshall Ganz; and Mayor of Bristol Marvin Rees.
The festival will promote learning about leadership for individuals, groups, organisations, partnerships and communities by creating a space where people can share experiences and explore the nature, purpose and consequences of leadership – good and bad – in contemporary business and society.
It is likely to be of particular interest to people working in complex and changing environments, such as health, education, social care and local government, where they are juggling competing priorities such as improving services while cutting costs.
There will also be practical hands-on sessions that will appeal to those working in business and community contexts; a symposium for doctoral students; and a number of open events for the general public.
UWE director of Bristol Leadership Centre, Prof Richard Bolden, said: “In volatile times, effective leadership is seen as key to success but many existing frameworks and practices are no longer fit for purpose.
“Social, economic, political, cultural and environmental pressures demand flexibility and adaptability as well as clarity of purpose and direction.
“The Festival of Leadership invites people to connect, collaborate and engage with others from diverse backgrounds in order to better understand the challenges we face and to explore alternative ways of working and leading together.”
Leadership Centre director Joe Simpson added: “There has never been a stronger need for adaptive leadership that crosses boundaries. We live in an increasingly complex, interdisciplinary world. Unprecedented financial pressures on public, private and voluntary sectors have combined with ever-higher expectations of outcomes, making effective leadership all the more pivotal.”
For more information on the festival, including speakers, programme and sponsors, and to buy tickets, visit www.festivalofleadership.org
