Women Leaders in Infrastructure

Whether it’s user group meetings or engaging with the community, developing a communication and engagement plan is critical to securing buy-in for major projects.

This breakout will focus on identifying best practices for bringing different perspectives to the table and effectively integrating them into projects.

Participants will share approaches that have worked well in the past as well as pitfalls to avoid.

• Finding a champion for your career path within infrastructure
• Exploring how to step into the role of champion or mentor
• Sharing examples of meaningful mentorship that helped aspiring women leaders level up
  • Defining allyship and sponsorship and uncovering why it matters
• Emphasizing the importance of representation, listening to and learning from women from different generations and cultural backgrounds
• Identifying key initiatives, networks, and opportunities internally and externally that can help support career paths
• Facilitating supportive discussions with girls early on about careers in STEM

Construction remains one of the most hazardous industries in Canada, with the highest rate of workplace fatalities and one of the highest rates of injuries. Despite decades of advances in safety practices, these statistics have remained largely unchanged. This keynote demonstrates how AI-enabled, dynamic digital twins can drastically improve safety on construction sites in a practical, equitable, and accessible manner to create a safer work environment that is better equipped to attract and retain a diverse workforce.

Women make up nearly half of the total workforce but only 4-5% of those working in the skilled trades. While those numbers are rising, progress is slow due to persistent barriers to entry and conditions that are not conducive to retention.

This session will focus on identifying key factors that are hampering women leaders in the skilled trades and offer practical next steps that industry and employers can take to address them.

• Addressing harassment, discrimination, and workplace violence
  • Practical tools for psychological safety
  • Insights on how to create a culture of inclusivity
• Identifying wage gaps
  • Implementing pay equity across the company
• Examining what’s missing or not being contemplated on the jobsite that has become a barrier or deterrent for women

This session will invite attendees to break out for a discussion on how to capture and action “lessons learned” from infrastructure projects. Despite collecting valuable insights, many organizations don’t consistently share them with new project teams, often citing cost or lack of formal mechanisms.

This think tank style session invites participants to explore practical strategies sharing, and applying lessons learned across organizations to elevate performance across sectors.