Highlights from The Equity Activists

When trying to explore highly complex issues, you need to see things from multiple perspectives. On 8th February, DK&A and Arup brought together three leading figures to discuss how we might create a more equitable society.

About The Equity Activists

Chaired by DK&A’s Founder, David Kester, and co-hosted by Arup’s Major Projects Director, Kate Hall, The Equity Activists saw our panel discuss how we can turn lived experiences into powerful narratives to share and activate change at scale.

Speaking at the event were social entrepreneur Poppy Jaman OBE, HR expert Loraine Martins OBE & comedian Ahir Shah.

Throughout the conversation, our panelists covered topics including mental health and the workplace, the increasing diversity of British politics & how to fix the under-representation of people with ethnic minority backgrounds within the engineering sector.

The Equity Activists was the first event in DK&A’s Good Morning Design series, which we will be running with Arup throughout 2023. Each event will see us talk to industry leaders about a different topic area in order to explore how design can help change our world for the better.

This inspirational day also saw the launch of the Mayor of London’s 2023 Design Lab, which will be run collaboratively between DK&A and the Black Leadership Group this year. The programme was announced by Tom Rahilly, Assistant Director for Communities and Social Policy at the Greater London Authority.

Video & audio from the event

To learn about the key takeaways from our conversation with our fantastic panel, we have compiled a short video highlighting 12 things we learned from The Equity Activists, which you can watch on Vimeo here.

If you’re interested in hearing the whole conversation, we have also released the full audio of the event as the latest episode of the Design Thinkers Academy London podcast.

You can find the podcast here, or listen via Spotify, Apple, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Talk to us about Equity by Design

We’re looking forward to welcoming as many people as possible to Good Morning Design events in the future, please sign up to our newsletter to keep up to date with these as they are announced.

If you’re interested in continuing the conversation sparked by The Equity Activists, or would like to learn more about the Mayor of London’s 2023 Design Lab, then please get in touch.

All photography by Ausra Linkeviciute.