The SHE Show North East
Tuesday 24th March 2026, Hilton Newcastle Gateshead
Catering Area
Sponsor
Event
Partners
National
Supporters
Catering Area Sponsor
Event Partners
National Supporters
Conference Programme
Evening Prior to The SHE Show (Monday 23rd March 2026)
6:30 PM – 7:15 PM
Networking Evening Drinks Reception
A great way to kick start the evening prior to the show by networking with like minded individuals in a relaxed and friendly atmosphere.
7:30 PM – 10:00 PM
Networking Evening Dinner
Enjoy a scrumptious 3 course meal with light hearted after dinner entertainment.
Unboxing Potential
Rachael Mackenzie, World Thai-boxing and British boxing Champion
Discover Rachael’s Knockout Strategies For Achieving Your Goals
Rachael Mackenzie’s journey from suicide attempts to the top of the world stage is one of resilience and grit. Prepare to be moved and to move as Rachael shares actionable steps you can take to cultivate your own resilience and embrace your journey, no matter how challenging it may seem.
In her keynote speech, Rachael will delve into her personal experiences, highlighting the pivotal moments that transformed her life. She will discuss the importance of mental health awareness, the power of vulnerability, and the strength found in community support.
Key Takeaways Include:
– Finding Purpose: Insights on how to discover and pursue your passion, turning challenges into a driving force for positive change.
– Resilience Building: Techniques to strengthen emotional resilience and bounce back from setbacks.
– Harnessing Neuroplasticity: Learn to reshape your thoughts and emotions through positive habits empowering you towards personal growth.
On the Day of The SHE Show (Tuesday 24th March 2026)
7:30 AM – 8:30 AM
Registration, Breakfast Reception and Exhibition Viewing
Welcome and Opening Remarks
Duncan Aspin, Delivering with Certainty Director, VolkerStevin
Duncan has worked in construction for over 30 years both operationally on site and as a health and safety professional. He has extensive experience in designing and implementing successful behaviour change within organisations and champions embracing a positive, inclusive and solution focused culture.
Mental Health and Wellbeing
Danger Mind Your Head
Rob Muldoon, The MYH Podcast
Rob started his career in construction as an apprentice bricklayer. Over two decades he worked his way up to be a project manager running Tier 1 projects such as ITV Studios, Manchester City’s training ground, large projects for the MOD and so on.
He also had his own brickwork company, growing the business from just himself to a team of 16. Those years were a big and steep learning curve for him as this was the first time he started to realise that working and not looking after his own needs started to impact his mental wellbeing and the people around him that he loved.
In 2018, he experienced a mental breakdown due to ignoring all the warning signs … not speaking about how he was feeling and the attitude … ‘Things like this don’t happen to people like me’.
“Mental health! I don’t get any of that rubbish…I’m alright I can keep going! I don’t get depressed I don’t get sad … none of that garbage bothers me”
Rob will openly share his personal story and journey from where he was to where he is today.
Key Takeaways Include:
– Understanding people’s mental well-being
– Building resilience and overcoming adversity
– Self-development
Behaviour and Culture Change
If Behaviour & Culture Change was easy, you’d have done it already
Guy Bloom, Director, Living Brave Leadership
Guy Bloom will challenge the comfortable myths about culture change and take you inside the leadership behaviours that create lasting impact. Expect a direct, practical exploration of why strap lines matter, how to build a narrative people actually believe, and why staying the course is harder, and more important, than launching the next initiative.
Culture and behaviour change is not about a poster on a wall or a slogan in a newsletter. It is about what leaders say, do, and tolerate every day. Yet in most organisations, change fails not because people do not care, but because the approach ignores the realities of human behaviour, narrative, and accountability.
This is not theory. It is a forward-facing, reality-based conversation for leaders who want to drive change that survives beyond the first wave of enthusiasm and actually shapes the way people think, feel, and act at work.
Key Takeaways Include:
– Trust is Earned Daily – Culture change fails when leaders expect belief without consistent proof in their actions.
– Accountability is Not a Poster – Behaviour changes when people are held to their word, not just inspired in a workshop.
– Bravery and Connection Drive Change – You cannot shift culture without tough conversations, visible courage, and genuine human connection.
10:20 AM – 10:25 AM
Summary
Duncan Aspin, Delivering with Certainty Director, VolkerStevin
10:25 AM – 11:25 AM
Refreshments and Exhibition Viewing
Climate Change and Sustainability
From Ocean Crisis to Human Health: Designing Resilient Futures
Jo Royle, British Environmental Leader, Trans-Ocean Skipper, and Founder of Common Seas
Jo Royle is a modern-day explorer, but not in search of new lands. Her journeys across some of the planet’s most extraordinary and fragile environments have revealed what’s really happening to our oceans – and why it matters to every one of us. From skippering a catamaran made of plastic bottles across the Pacific, to sailing to Pitcairn Island where HMS Bounty was wrecked, to voyaging through the disappearing mangroves of the Sundarbans, Jo has witnessed both the beauty of the seas and the scale of their decline.
Drawing on two decades of leadership – from working with 22 governments to tackle plastic pollution, to co-leading international campaigns that secured protection for over 4.4 million km² of ocean – Jo connects the dots between ocean health, human health, and the resilience of our economies. Her pioneering work has influenced how the world thinks about plastic, uncovered the first evidence of microplastics in human blood, and helped shift entire national policies.
In this keynote, Jo sounds the alarm on the state of our seas, explores the business drivers behind the crisis, and shares a hopeful vision of the solutions already scaling. The audience will leave informed, inspired, and energised to take bold steps in their own organisations to build healthier, more resilient futures.
Key Takeaways Include:
– Understand the risks: How ocean decline directly impacts human health, business, and economic stability.
– Identify the drivers: The systemic and commercial forces fuelling climate change, overfishing and plastic pollution.
– Visualise the solutions: Practical, scalable examples of how governments, businesses and citizens are already turning the tide – and how your organisation can lead.
Overcoming Adversity and Resilience
PPE for the Mind
Dr Helen Garr, The Wellbeing GP
Life doesn’t always go to plan—but what if our setbacks could become our greatest teachers? In this inspiring keynote, Dr. Helen Garr explores the power of resilience, showing how we can rise stronger by embracing failure, finding wisdom in our past, and crafting our own path forward.
Through Dr Helen’s 5 F’s you’ll discover practical strategies to navigate challenges, identify what keeps you afloat, and create your own mental PPE—your GLOW—to protect and sustain you. With engaging stories, science-backed insights, and real-world tools, this session will help you move from surviving to thriving, proving that even in the toughest times, hope and possibility are always within reach.
The secret to resilience isn’t in someone else’s story—it’s in your own.
Key Takeaways Include:
1:05 PM – 1:10 PM
Summary
Duncan Aspin, Delivering with Certainty Director, VolkerStevin
1:10 PM – 2:10 PM
Networking Lunch and Exhibition Viewing
Legal Advice and Updates
The Wonderful World of Inquests!
Paul Burnley, Partner and Head of Compliance & Regulatory at Freeths Solicitors
A workplace fatality is a nightmare situation! Following on from the inevitable Police and HSE Investigation is the inescapable Coroner’s Inquest. Nowadays this Jury hearing has taken on a new importance and has consequences. This presentation gives a down to Earth explanation of what an inquest is all about and dispels the myths !
Key Takeaways Include:
– What Inquests do and what it may mean for you.
– How Inquests actually operate in practice and what they look at.
– Your role in an Inquest and how to perform!
Inspirational Leadership
Winning Together
Kate Richardson-Walsh OBE, Former Captain of GB and England Women’s Hockey, Olympic Gold & Bronze Medalist
This is the inside story of what it takes to build high performing teams. Kate Richardson-Walsh will share powerful lessons from the Great Britain women’s hockey team journey to gold in Rio 2016. Through intense periods of change, Kate will share the importance of individual mindset, empathic team culture and foundational behavioural alignment. Kate demonstrates that successful teams are made up of people who are valued as human beings and supported to individually flourish.
Key Takeaways Include: