Gathering with anticipation, and more than a little excitement for what lay ahead, senior leaders from across the country joined us for our live leadership event on 19th October in the charming and historic Mary Ward House in central London – all staring wide-eyed and mesmerised by the powerful story from out Headline Speaker, Bonita Norris.
Because Uspire events are not typically formulaic, with droning speakers staring at their shoes, we always challenge our guests with the day’s a key provocation and everything they see, hear, and do is channelled back to that.
So with his trademark enthusiasm JB, Uspire's MD, challenged everyone in the room to think how they, as leaders, can become more agile using the core values of the Agility Code.
The Agility Code was created to encourage organisations to empower talent, to release their latent energy and potential and channel it to kick-start dramatic change. And Bonita’s achievement certainly demonstrates how much can be achieved by unlocking an entrepreneurial spirit: trying new things, taking new risks and thinking way outside the box.
A non-climber, who, with no climbing experience, little money, and only her passion to succeed and ability to adapt, stood on the summit of Everest at the age of 22. The youngest British woman at the time to have ever done so, and now the perfect embodiment of the Uspire Agility Code.
Bonita's story is fascinating and to really learn from it you need to hear it spoken from her heart, and let her take you on her journey from wet Welsh mountain slopes to the rarified air at the top of the world.
But to get a birds-eye view then the fantastically creative Fran O’Hara captured the key moments from Bonita’s talk as she explained how she confronted her fears and limitations to realise her dreams.
After a fabulous networking lunch we got stuck into the afternoon session, putting our new-found agility to use on developing a pitching video for our new (fictitious) company Sabbatico.
So JB set the challenge, and each table was sent off to work out their ideas for pitching the idea of Sabbatico to the Zillennial Jury, our panel of Zillennial (Millennials and Generation Z) reviewers, the only condition was that the pitch needed to be a 60 sec video!
So, after 30 minutes of furious activity we had 11 video pitches, presented to and critiqued by our Zillennial Jury.
As usual, the awesome Fran O'Hara was on hand to capture proceedings and convert into this incredible interactive map.
Simply select the table number to watch their video pitch.
The day was dynamic, interactive, provocative and energising, and we asked a couple of guests to share their thoughts on their experience.
Rhys Howells, Managing Director, Eteach:
Oliver Gosejacob, Global Account Director, parcIT, Cologne, Germany:
The Agility Code is just one of a number of events delivered by The Uspire Group, from in-person interactive forums, to our live online leadership debates.
To hear about upcoming events register here, or if you would like to speak with us about how we may support your leadership journey, then contact us on team@theuspiregroup.com.