In the penultimate week of the year, Year 12 Economics students, Ella, Alyssa and Florence designed and led an Economics conference with the GDST schools.
Similar to last year, the conference had an impressive lineup of speakers exploring some of the most current and pressing issues facing our society and our Sixth Formers were joined by students from across the GDST family of schools.
The Year 12 Economists took on a wide variety of roles to produce a very professional and well run event. Roles include leadership roles, marketing, research, logistics and IT and project management. Students were praised by the speakers for their professional job in hosting the event.
The impressive line up of speakers were:
Claire Conby discussing ‘The future of money – the digital pound’
Claire Conby is Co Founder and CEO of One Step Financial and the Operations and Governance Lead for the Digital Pound Foundation. Claire has a leading role in helping drive the UK’s implementation of a digital pound. She shared her insights into the benefits and challenges of the UK’s transition to a digital currency. Claire helped students to understand some of the key challenges including public engagement and adapting to the funding structures of commercial banks.
Professor Lorraine Whitmarsh (MBE) discussing ‘The importance of behaviour change in reaching net zero’
We were proud to welcome Professor Lorraine Whitmash (MBE) as a former GDST student. Professor Whitmarsh is an environmental psychologist at the University of Bath and serves as Director of the Centre for Climate Change and Social Transformations. She specialises in perceptions and behaviours in relation to climate change, energy and transport. She shared her insights into the importance of behaviour change in protecting the environment and reaching our net zero target. Professor Whitmarsh helped students to understand specifically what behaviours we need to change in society in order to reduce our carbon footprint and examined the effectiveness of different government strategies needed to achieve such radical change in lifestyles.
David Reed and Richard Ellison discussing ‘AI and its impact on the workforce’
David Reed is Director of Strategy and Innovation and Richard Ellison is Associate Director Enterprise Architecture both from Invesco. David is an experienced business and technology leader specialising in the Asset Management Industry. His work primarily focuses on how emerging technologies will change the face of financial service industries. Richard has over 30 years of experience as a manager and technical specialist with a broad understanding across application development and infrastructure. David and Richard shared their insights into how recent developments in AI will be used by business and helped students to understand how this will impact the wider workforce.
What did students get out of it?
The experts provided valuable insights extending beyond the curriculum. The conference provided students with an opportunity to debate and discuss a wide range of current issues with experts at the top of their field. Students thoroughly enjoyed leading the project and there was a real sense of achievement when the students could see their weeks of effort come together in a very professional and well run event.
Alyssa Williams questioned experts about how the digital pound would impact on financial inclusion and the likelihood of a cashless society in the future. It sparked a lively debate afterwards over the potential concerns over privacy and trust with a move towards a digital currency.
“I really enjoyed organising the event and I felt like I learnt a lot in terms of teamwork and leadership. It was great to see how the conference went after working on it for weeks and the 3 talks were really insightful.”
Ella Patterson questioned Professor Whitmarsh on the challenges of engaging with the public to achieve such radical changes in lifestyles and behaviour and the extent to which the UK government is doing enough to incentivise consumers and businesses.
“I thoroughly enjoyed Professor Whitmarsh’s talk, in particular understanding the links between psychology and economics and how economic policies are being used to reduce climate change. From my leadership role, I learnt the importance of communication. I really enjoyed it and found it very rewarding watching all the different pieces come together during the conference.”
Florence was particularly interested in the ethical considerations for businesses when implementing Chat GTP into the workplace. Florence also questioned experts on how students can best prepare themselves for a new world of work.
