Sheffield Chamber of Commerce Launches Brand-New Leadership Conference

19th February 2025

Leadership Unleashed, a new event hosted and co-organised by Sheffield Chamber of Commerce and SHEAF, is pleased to invite both existing and aspiring leaders, and anyone ready to explore what it means to lead with purpose.

A bold, dynamic celebration of true leadership qualities, the event, which is sponsored by Westfield Health, is due to take place on March 7 (1-7pm) at The Showroom, Sheffield. It aims to provide opportunities to meet and connect with a diverse network of forward-thinking leaders.

Louisa Harrison Walker OBE, Chief Executive of Sheffield Chamber of Commerce, said:

“I’ve had the privilege of meeting many inspiring leaders throughout my career, and Sheffield is home to some fantastic examples.

“However, I also recognise that leadership is a continuous journey of growth and development – I’m still learning every day. That’s why having a space where we can explore, encourage, inspire, and support leadership is so important.

“By investing in better leaders, we can drive the economy forward and create outstanding places to work.”

Attendees on the day will have the opportunity to listen to keynote speakers, Laura Jordan Bambach and Brian Deane.

Laura is the Founder and Chief Creative Officer of Uncharted, a female-founded creative agency that combines the best new technologies with a diverse global community of creative talent.

She is also the former President and Chief Creative Officer of Grey UK, and Founder of SheSays – the creative industry’s largest global women’s network.

Brian Deane is a former professional footballer, and manager, with a career spanning 21 years and over 700 games and 200 goals. He played for clubs such as Sheffield United, Leeds United, West Ham, Middlesborough, Leicester and Benfica, before going into professional football management in Norway’s topflight division, managing Sarpsborg 08.

In his first year, he kept the newly promoted team in the division with the smallest budget and then finished 8th in the second season and reached the cup semi-final. 

“We’re super excited to share the experiences of many leaders across the themes of ‘authentic stories of how real leadership leads to success’, ‘how to inspire and be inspired by the next generation of leaders’ and ‘tales that show the power of embracing failure as learning,” Louisa added.

“We’re looking for leaders to join a panel to present a snapshot of their experience within one of these three themes. Think this could be you? Please get in touch.”

Each panel will invite five different leaders to deliver lightning talks for each theme. The format will allow each person to present their story of leadership in six minutes. This will be broken down into 12 slides and 30 seconds per slide. Talks will, therefore, provide quickfire insights into the panellists’ learnings.

After the initial panel, the audience will have the opportunity to join a panel member in a breakout room to delve deeper into their experience.

Louisa explained:

“This is not your typical sit-back-and-listen event – it’s purposely participative and interactive. We want to provide a rare pocket of time to meet likeminded professionals and to share challenges and personal tools to become a leader of the future.”

The conference is open to all leaders from any industry or business. It is powered by a dynamic network of female Senior Leaders from the public, private and third sectors.

Networking opportunities, with a wide cross section of individuals, will allow attendees to have meaningful conversations that challenge outmoded ideas about leadership.

People will leave with fresh insights, new connections, and practical takeaways to lead with courage and authenticity.

Find out more about Leadership Unleashed here: https://bit.ly/4b1u9bv or register your interest to speak here: https://bit.ly/3CHcCsk