At some point in my needless job search in 2024, I decided it was in my best interest to attend seminars, conferences and webinars. It was my enlightenment period. My time to take the job search and networking outside OUTSIDE. One of the first really good in-person ones was a "law as a creative" themed conference - Africa Creative Market.
It dealt with lawyers in their pursuit and protection of Art - Intellectual Property lawyers, various creatives and lawyers who have veered into being artists. I found that very relevant and I immediately "held space" for it. Most people don't realise that lawyers are artists. There's a great subset of lawyers who either remain artists after studying law, or practice law in support of artists while tending to their artistic side, myself falling into the latter. Even though I could only attend the conference on the closing day the few speeches and fireside chats that I caught resonated with me and made me feel seen.
I found a particular fireside chat with the partner of one of the biggest law firms in Lagos (Sandra Oyewole from DLA Piper) very impactful and poignant. This elder lady even talked about menopause relating it to mental health and mental capacity to be productive at work. This is a topic most companies do not factor into their employee reviews. They never stop to consider that an employees work behavior may be affected by peri-menopause? Maybe because their ultimate goal is to hire anyone from 40 below and consider people over 40 as not "hireable" in Nigeria's market (but I digress).
I commend the organizer, who is also a lawyer that has leaned far left from it. She was awesome and accommodating to make the topics relevant to all audiences...old and young and made it super duper organised as well. It also takes a lot of in-depth planning to attract sponsors in the fashion and creative industry, to serve us all free food and drinks with a fashion show in this deplorable economy.
Big Kudos.
No comments:
Post a Comment