Stepping into the Spotlight with RADA
On Wednesday 26th June, Women in Defence UK teamed up with the Royal Academy of the Dramatic Arts (RADA) to host the first in our series of Impact Masterclasses.
Around 60 women from right across the defence enterprise attended the session, which was delivered by a brilliant RADA actor and voice coach Sarah Blumenau. Over the course of the 90 minutes, Sarah covered the physicality, breathing and psychology of how to feel and be more confident at work and demonstrated how even small changes in posture, movement, breathing and speech patterns can make a huge difference both to how you feel and how you're perceived. The session was aimed in particular at those looking to drive towards the next stage of their careers and thus included ways to reflect on current management styles, strategies to build resilience and how to communicate with greater impact and influence others.
We have received incredible feedback from the women at the session about their experience of the evening. One attendee commented in particular on the networking opportunities which ran throughout, both in the group exercise in the masterclass and in the dedicated hour afterwards accompanied by drinks and nibbles. She thanked the WiD team for flagging up the session to her and commented:"It felt really worthwhile and very inspiring to meet lots of others in defence roles too. Great networking opportunity."
Other attendees took to Twitter to share their thoughts, with the Army Servicewomen's Network Co-Chair WO2 Kelly Caswell-Treen tweeting: "Really productive evening with women across Defence at the historic RADA Studios with Women in Defence UK & PA Consulting getting top tips about how the body, voice & breath can improve impact & release tension!".
We were also lucky enough to capture Sqn Ldr Hannah Welch, of the Armed Forces Diversity Engagement Team, expresing how she felt on camera!
Overall we're delighted with how well the session went and have come away feeling inspired and enthused in equal measure.
Our Impact Masterclass series forms an important part of our drive to pro-actively demonstrate the direct impact and force multiplying effect women bring to defence of the nation, linking directly to the demonstrating and developing pillars of our vision. So a huge thank you from us to RADA, Event Partner PA Consulting, and to all the brilliant women who came along for making this fantastic and valuable evening possible.