I had been looking forward to attending this conference since I booked it. Temple Grandin was the headline speaker and I am quite a fan of hers, a fascinating woman. As we neared the date of the event it was announced that HRH Princess Royal was going to attend as well, excited doesn’t really cover it!

So with 3 other colleagues I travelled to London on Monday, had a nice meal and a catch up, then early to bed ready for the main event.

It has been a bit of a ‘moment’ for me really Meat Business Women, an ongoing moment if there is such a thing. I have been to previous events of theirs, and I support it as it is a networking group that was desperately needed in the meat industry.

This morning I was up early, emails etc done and even a 30 minute beachbody on demand yoga session completed, which was quite an achievement in. Premier Inn Hub room. Flat white in hand (get me, living the city life) and off we went to the conference.

I am still going through the day in my head, there was so much useful content I couldn’t do it justice just by social media posts. A day like today would have taken serious planning and negotiating effort by the MBW committee, and I am so grateful that they did it.

Today was full inspiration and information, and it has given a serious amount of food for thought.

Temple Grandin is a visual thinker and understands how animals see differently. Animals think in pictures and not words and this allows Temple to be a complete specialist in her work with animal behaviour and welfare. I was very fortunate to see a cattle handling system she had designed near Colorado a few years ago.

She was a strong advocate of not allowing bad to become normal, and of just getting things done. Now these seem like simple things to do but we are all guilty of letting others get away with things, it can be hard to stand up for what is right sometimes.

I really liked her point of just go and do it, too often we talk and plan, but to really find out we have to do it. Perhaps she should speak to our political representatives and get that point across.

A legend in my eyes and an honour to hear her speak.

We had many other speakers throughout the day, one other highlight for me was Teresa Exelby from Morrisons. I met Teresa very briefly the night before the talk and enjoyed our conversation, but when I heard her on stage, well wow! What a speaker, she was incredibly inspirational, because she was so real. Something I took from her talk was to be my best, don’t settle if I want to improve further, and to set my own targets, wise words in the crazy work worlds we are all in.

Nobody wants to read this for too long so although we had other excellent speakers covering international trade, the value of a mentor and veterinary talks, I simply can’t put everything in so have focussed on my personal highlights.

The day was closed by HRH Princess Anne. I had heard her speak at the Oxford Farming Conference in January so I knew she was a straight talker. One topic she covered was food waste, how we have too much choice. Which we maybe don’t realise because we are used to it, so we don’t value it or respect it. When we think about what humans really need in life, it can all seem a bit ridiculous.

HRH is known to be a supporter of agriculture and it was fantastic to have her speak to a room of women from the meat industry.

HRH had some wise words to share, a very down to earth talk and a lovely finish for the MBW team as she congratulated the room for coming so far and wished us all well as she was interested in what we can do in the future.

I attend a fair few conferences over the year and they vary, I mainly attend to gain information, Im not good at networking but do do it sometimes. This conference was full of useful information but I left with other take aways as well.

I have networked and not even realised, and although it is a good few weeks since I left room, I still feel inspired from the day, and excited about the future of our meat industry here in UK.

Well done to MBW team for this conference, one that will stay in the mind for some time 👍👌🏻👏👏