For the second year running, Appetite Creative Founder and MD, Jenny Stanley has presented an interactive Workshop at the Dubai Lynx International Festival of Creativity; an event which brings together the most creative people in MENA. Its' event has been described as having "the right blend of local and international representation; bringing creativity and insights that gets everyone in the industry thinking"*. As a creative solutions company, this event is the perfect setting for Appetite Creative to deliver a uniquely interactive and creative session.
The festival kicked off with a welcome party, followed by two days of inspirational speeches given on multiple stages around the Madinat Jumeirah Hotel Resort; and then concluded with an awards show to celebrate the masses of talent and creativity within the industry. Throughout, there were numerous opportunities to network and discuss current affairs or breakthroughs in the industry.
Over in the Lynx Loft, Jenny ran a workshop entitled 'Turning Worriers into Warriors' for an audience of thirty to forty women, and also two men. This workshop focused largely on unconscious bias: how people in the workplace discriminate against gender, race and disability without being aware of doing so. Jenny referred to at recent viral activity including a BBC interview video and Microsoft Tweets from the AI bot Tay. Co-hosting this workshop with Jenny was the insightful Lamisse Muhtaseb, Director of Human Resources at Deloitte based in United Arab Emirates. They had recently undergone some research on this very subject and Lamisse was able to share some really interesting insights from this project.
Together, the duo first spoke about how to recognise and deal with unconscious bias, and then, after some inspiring and thought provoking debate between the hosts and the attendees, the workshop split into groups and discussed what had already been presented and shared their own unique experiences. There was also a challenges wall which looked at what people thought may be challenges hindering their success in their career. Everyone was really involved and interacted and participated in sharing their thoughts and debate around the subject. After this, the group came back together to look at the concept of an 'inner voice' and how to address it and create practical steps to take back into their workplace and everyday life. We closed with a fantastic quote that one of the participants from the group shared with us, which summed up the session perfectly:
"The first thought that goes through your mind is what you have been conditioned to think. What you think next defines who you are.”
See more pictures from the event on the Femme Niche website by clicking here