What are my sustainable fashion office hours, and how to join me for the next one
Sign up to join my next virtual drop-in on working in sustainable fashion this July
My idea for hosting sustainable fashion office hours came to me late last year when I started to realise, as my Linkedin following had grown, just how many requests I was getting asking the same sort of questions. My inbox is flooded almost daily with messages about finding time for a chat, meeting for a quick coffee or "picking my brain". Previously, like so many others I'm sure, I had been able to respond to a tiny percentage of these, and I wanted to find a way to be more open and democratic about who I managed to actually connect with.
So I thought I'd trial sticking people in a room together at the same time, but prioritise those with less access to the industry already otherwise - students and young professionals only (those with less than five years experience in the working world).
The result has been incredible. Each month, I welcome up to eight people onto a Zoom chat to ask me anything they want about working in this world as a sort of group mentoring experience. Nothing is off the table. The only rules are about having respect for everyone else in the room, and operating under Chatham House so we can all be as open as possible with one another. The meetings turn into a real discussion between everyone else, and not just me, and also serve as a networking opportunity to connect people who don't otherwise know each other (I've had incredible participants from all around the world), but are experiencing very similar things.
It's not a vast number of people overall, of course, but by the end of this first year, I'll have met with at least 100 individuals I hope, which is probably tenfold what I was achieving formally when 1-2-1 before. I must also add, these sessions are just really enjoyable to do. I've even done one in person with a group at an event in Paris recently, and that was really special. More of these to follow at future conferences I hope.
So two updates today now these virtual sessions have an official platform behind them with 'Owning it':
First, the next session for students and young professionals will be on Thursday, July 18, at 1pm BST. These usually fill up within 30 minutes once I post on Linkedin, so do be quick to register here. I will from now on always share them on here at least 24 hours ahead of posting elsewhere. They remain free to attend.
Secondly, I have repeatedly been asked by those at a more established stage in their careers to also join such a call. For those interested, 'Owning it' now has a professional membership option to enable exactly this, for anyone in a position to pay to join. It’s not a big fee, but it will cover my time as someone self-employed and hopefully ensure those truly serious to this cause show up. I will again keep these to a limited number of attendees and organise them as and when there are the right amount of sign-ups to participate. Your membership will get you one of these per year.
I really look forward to hearing everyone's feedback on all. In the meantime, I look forward to seeing lots of you in the June office hours session to come first (already fully booked), and the rest of you in July for the next!
I plan to attend the August meeting! I am excited to see what other young professionals and students are curious about.