A Week of Networking, Learning & Building

A Week of Networking, Learning & Building

What a week it's been! As a founder, there's nothing quite like immersing yourself in the energy of the tech and business community, learning from others who are tackling similar challenges, and sharing what we're building along the way.

To kick start the week, I spent time at London Tech Week listening to thoughtful panels about ethical AI use cases, underrepresented founders and the power of community for support. Thanks Boardwave ! There's something incredibly energizing about being surrounded by people who understand that ultimately, we're all learning from each other to help us scale faster.

On Wednesday, I spent a few hours at the CIPD Festival of Work drawn in by two panels that caught my attention. The first, "Redefining HR's Role at the Leadership Table," unfortunately I was left feeling underwhelmed - I entered the session excited and hopeful and left feeling like I may be sitting in a similar panel 20 years from now. More on this to come. However, it was before this panel that I met Margaret Attiogbe, Assoc CIPD and that connection alone made the time worthwhile - anyone looking for recruitment support in UK healthcare should reach out to her! The second session, "Brave New World: Putting AI to Work," was exactly what I was hoping for. I love hearing firsthand from organizations about how they're building practical use cases for AI. In this session, Chris English, Director of Culture at McDonald's, shared a recent use case they tackled around "speak up" culture. They recognized their systems and channels were very corporate and didn't resonate with their employees representing four generations, so they developed an app called "Red Flag Chat" that's embedded in the same app their payslips live, making it easy for employees to flag areas of concern.

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CIPD Festival of Work

Networking and making new connections is always a highlight at these events. I also met Harry Easting full of curiosity and passion about HR. Though he studied politics at university, Harry found himself drawn to HR and has been on a learning journey across all aspects of the field, from his early days at the UK Home Office to his current role at the Cabinet Office, where he focuses on recruitment.

On Thursday, I spent the day in Cambridge, back at the Judge Business School. There's just something about that atmosphere that adds a jump in my step. After many Zoom and Teams meetings with Tanya Alcock it was so nice meeting in person - I was able to show her our latest developments with Insight Index and she provided some useful user feedback, particularly around the balance between generic implementation steps and ways to ensure they're personalized to the business. We're so grateful for hers and others input on the product as it continues to be a guiding point to how the product continues to evolve. And again, the power of human connection is understated. On the train up from London King's Cross, Saravanan Oppila sat across from me. And rather than sitting quietly behind my laptop responding to emails for the entire journey, we covered everything from AI models to cloud providers and both of our backgrounds. It was a great way to start the day! Hi, I'm Nicole, what's your name:)

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Cambridge Judge Business School on a sunny day:)

These moments remind me why building in public and staying connected to the community is so valuable. Every conversation, every panel, every chance encounter has the potential to spark new ideas, challenge assumptions or simply provide the encouragement needed to push through the next hurdle. As founders, we're often so heads-down in building that we forget how much we gain from lifting our heads up and engaging with the world around us.

Another highlight from my week was connecting with another AI start-up founder I've been working closely with over the last year. They invited us to partner together on a bid they're sending out for a global company looking for root causes to underperformance and support with designing and implementing an engagement survey, plus deep analysis to discover actionable insights tied to their business - right up our alley! We're so excited to be part of this opportunity, it's early days with the bid process, but hopefully more to share soon!

The week reinforced something I've been thinking about lately: the best innovations happen at the intersection of different perspectives, experiences and expertise. Whether it's McDonald's reimagining employee feedback systems or a chance conversation with an AI engineer on a train, there's inspiration everywhere if we're open to it.

Here's to more weeks like this, where learning, building and connecting come together to fuel the journey ahead. Next week I'll be at at the BridgeAI Annual Showcase. Who Should Attend: Whether you’re looking to implement AI solutions in your business or supply innovative AI solutions to address industry challenges, come along to see how many more business productivity problems can be solved by AI. We'll be there and can't wait to share how myCandr | Feedback to Action drives productivity.

What's been inspiring you lately in your own work? I'd love to hear about it.

Sincerely,

Nicole


About Me

A common thread through my personal and professional life is my passion for people, which has led me here today with myCandr. Ensuring people are heard - their ideas, what’s working well and what’s not working well as it relates to organizational performance and insights.

Current state as we know it, is that the higher you climb in an organization’s hierarchy the less likely you will receive unvarnished insights from the front line. It can be lonely at the top.

Leaders aren’t always privy to what’s happening on the ground. I’d like to see leaders in organizations have more transparency and intelligent information about how the business is operating and what employees are experiencing in their day-to-day work.

Curious about how we're helping SMEs today, contact me or connect with me on LinkedIn.


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