Thank you for joining us at the 2026 conference

 We’re thrilled to welcome Poggy Murray Whitham BEng (Hons) MSc PgCert CMgr FCMI MIET AMIMechE CFSAT to the Women With Metal Conference 2026!

Poggy is a multi-award-winning DEI expert, engineer, and keynote speaker, recognised as one of the UK’s Top 100 Manufacturing Professionals and a National Diversity Awards finalist. Their TEDx talk ‘Engineering Equity with Automation’ and bestselling book Inclusion Moments explore how everyday inclusion drives innovation, productivity, and culture change.

Engineering Equity at the Intersection:  What happens when we stop looking at people through a single lens?  Drawing on intersectionality, workplace data, lived experience, and engineering systems thinking, this keynote explores how overlapping identities can shape people's experiences of work, why better data helps us design more inclusive systems, and how inclusion is ultimately experienced in everyday moments.  From organisational processes to individual acts of allyship, the talk makes the case that meaningful inclusion requires both better systems and better everyday choices.
 

 We’re delighted to announce that Rachel Sewell will be joining us as a speaker at the Women With Metal Conference 2026.

Rachel is a Menopause Specialist and Nervous System Regulation Coach, supporting women to regulate stress, restore energy and build resilience — both at work and in life. Her session will bring practical insight and real-world strategies to help women navigate pressure, performance and wellbeing in demanding industries. 

 We’re delighted to announce that Steph Snade and Jeremy Stockdale will be returning to the Women With Metal stage for 2026.

Not exactly newbies to our platform — their session at the 2025 conference was honest, insightful and full of practical takeaways, they brought the kind of energy that stays with you long after the event ends.

When they’re not on the Women With Metal stage:
 

Steph is a Business Psychologist and leadership expert dedicated to supporting businesses to achieve greater success through strategic people and organisational development. She has twenty years of insight and experience into people's behaviours, motivations, and drivers, with over a decade as a Business Psychologist, specialising in leadership and organisational development.

Her mission lies in creating excellence in leaders and organisations. High-functioning, supportive, and inclusive leadership within psychologically safe, engaging environments helps people and businesses thrive, allowing transformative change to happen. Steph has worked with over 1500 leaders and partners with businesses to enhance leadership effectiveness, drive organisational change, and create high-performing cultures.

Jeremy is CEO and Founder of Ylead, helping businesses develop stronger leadership and more balanced, effective workplaces through data-driven insight and behavioural science. 

We're delighted to announce that Michelle Rawlins will be joining us at the Women With Metal Conference 2026.

Michelle is the author of Women of Steel, a powerful book based on extensive research and interviews that captures the real stories of the women who worked in the steel industry during wartime and helped keep the foundries running.

At the conference, Michelle will share insights from the research behind the book, exploring the resilience, contribution and legacy of these remarkable women and why their stories still matter today. 

We’re proud to welcome Jane Bytheway to the Women With Metal Conference 2026.

Jane is a Leadership Coach and Workplace Grief Specialist, with over 20 years’ experience supporting leaders and teams through change, challenge, and loss. Combining professional expertise with lived experience of bereavement, she helps organisations build more compassionate, grief-aware cultures.

At the conference, Jane will explore a question many people quietly struggle with:
What do you say after “I’m sorry for your loss?”

Her session will offer practical, honest insight into how we can better support colleagues through grief, whatever our role.

This is a conversation that matters in every workplace.

We’re proud to welcome back Victoria Jones to the Women With Metal Conference 2026.

 

Many of you will remember Victoria from our 2024 conference, where she delivered an engaging and thought-provoking session. 

We're thrilled that she's returning this year to share fresh insights on a topic that affects every one of us: our relationship with money.

Victoria, from Quilter Cheviot, will explore how our generational experiences shape the way we think about saving, spending, investing and financial uncertainty. From the influence of major economic events to the social and emotional factors that affect our financial decisions, Victoria will uncover why different generations often approach money so differently.

Her session promises to be insightful, relatable and full of practical takeaways to help us make more informed and intentional financial choices.