The inaugural Connecting Women in District Heat conference took place on 9th Dec 2019 in London. This was a culmination of the success of the District Heat Diva’s breakfasts that have been running monthly since early 2019.

The conference was an overwhelming success with over 90 delegates from companies large and small from all sectors – finance, legal, project management, engineering, customer services, metering, manufacturers. It was refreshing to hear an abundance of women’s voices in the breaks rather than the usual crowds of men, which is what I’m used to at engineering conferences. Not that that’s a bad thing at all, it was just….different.

The workshops held at the event were great, including mine, @adriana.rodriguez ‘s and @vattenfall.com’s workshop on ‘How to Design your Own Heat Network’. During the workshops there were lots of interesting and engaging questions, leading to discussions on low carbon heat networks with two sessions and two very different groups.

The after-lunch session was not the usual graveyard shift but a ‘make yourself fabulous’ workshop with the incredible drag prince, Alfie Ordinary, featuring a lot of glitter and dressing up dolls! Fabulous! (The wonderful Drag Artists at the event. Image credit @se2limited)

Overall, I had a great day with lots of good conversation and connections being made. It was great to hear from Faye Thompson on her District Eating company which focuses on making food production and greenhouses more local and sustainable and was a delight to hear the story behind her company.

I am very excited to attend the event again in 2020!