Just two days to go until the doors open for this year’s MAD World Festival of Workplace Culture, Employee Health and Wellbeing on Thursday 17th October. In case you’re still deciding whether to join the 600 people that have already registered, here’s a handy summary of the key themes of the event. And the sessions that I’m particularly looking forward to – and hope that you are too.
The Leaders’ Summit at MAD World
This year, reflecting the evolution of the world of workplace culture, employee health and wellbeing, the Leaders’ Summit at MAD World is maturing too.
For 2024 we’ve taken a “less is more” approach. We decided to focus on the key theme “Driving excellence in workplace culture, employee health and wellbeing”. The agenda has been designed to hone in on key aspects of what is needed in order to achieve this:
- Understanding the balance between institutional change and individual interventions and the need to take a preventative approach, are two key themes that will be highlighted in both the opening keynote debate, and the closing keynote fireside chat with Luciana Berger.
- The Leaders’ Summit panel sessions and case studies all showcase the essential aspects of delivering high-impact, future-proofed, holistic workplace culture, employee health and wellbeing programmes.
- Delegates will then be able to get answers to their specific questions linked to these issues by attending the Leaders’ Summit roundtables, – which I’m particularly looking forward to. These will focus on:
- Balancing psychosocial risks v personal resilience
- Tech and AI in wellbeing – help or hindrance?
- Measuring the effectiveness of a wellbeing strategy – the power of using aggregated data
- How does leadership and culture facilitate wellbeing in a multi-generational workforce?
- How do you develop a wellbeing strategy and know if it is making a difference?
You can find out more about the Leaders’ Summit speakers and sessions on the full agenda here.
The Heads Together Hub
New for 2024, using the event app, you can also arrange to meet up in person for informal, real-time knowledge exchange in the dedicated “Heads Together Hub”, which will be open throughout the day. Suggested discussion topics are all on the Heads Together Hub tab of the full agenda here.
The Heads Together Hub will also be where you can join afternoon sponsor-led discussions on:
- EAP 2.0 – What’s next for Employee Assistance Programmes?
- New-starter adjustments and Gen Z as part of a preventative approach to employee health and wellbeing
The DE&I Summit
Building on the success of last year’s DE&I Symposium, which demonstrated the powerful connection between DE&I and wellbeing, this year’s DE&I Summit is bringing together a fantastic group of DE&I leaders to foster the collaboration that’s needed to create inclusive workplaces where all employees can thrive.
The agenda is packed with great panels, but I’m particularly looking forward to the discussions focused on the hottest topic of 2024: “Creating and celebrating neuroinclusion at work”.
You can find out more about the DE&I Summit speakers and sessions on the full agenda here.
The Legal Summit
New for 2024, running parallel to the other Summits is the Legal Summit which has been produced in partnership with MBC and LawCare. The aim of the Legal Summit is to bring the different elements of the law profession together to discuss key issues and decide the best way forward to make the law a healthier profession.
I’m particularly looking forward to the Summit’s opening session which features input from from Richard Martin, CEO of the Mindful Business Charter (MBC) and Andrew Masraf, Senior Partner, Pinsent Masons. They’ll be discussing the state of the mental health of the Legal profession and why it’s so important that everyone comes together to decide the best way forwards. The closing session of the day is also a highlight, honing in on best practice guidelines.
You can find out more about the Legal Summit speakers and sessions on the full agenda here.
The Construction Summit
Last but my no means least, again new for 2024 is the Construction Summit. Devised in partnership with Mates in Mind, this will demonstrate how organisations can embed a continuous and comprehensive solution to ensure that no-one reaches crisis point and mental health awareness becomes everyone’s issue.
Another stellar agenda makes it hard to pick a favourite session. But if I have to choose one, it would be the session focused on: “How to support mental wellbeing across supply chains”. This is surely the way to supercharge the establishment of employee mental health and wellbeing support as business as usual – right across industries.
You can find out more about the Construction Summit speakers and sessions on the full agenda here.
You can find out more about all the different elements of the MAD World Festival of Workplace Culture, Employee Health and Wellbeing here and register with a 50% discount using code MAD50 here.
Employers who are eligible to join the Make A Difference Leaders’ Club benefit from VIP attendance of the Summit. You can find out more about the Leaders’ Club and apply to join here.
