We l l b e i n g
Putting health and wellbeing at the top of the rail agenda We speak to the team who turned a couple of notes on a bit of paper into Rail Wellbeing Live
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ail Wellbeing Live was a success on so many levels, but none more so than the impact it has and will continue to have on the 13,000 people who took part in some of the 80 sessions. But the event was very different to the original concept scribbled on a piece of paper by John Halsall, Chair of the Rail Wellbeing Alliance and Managing Director of Network Rail’s Southern region. It was initially planned to be just one-day at Coventry’s Ricoh Arena for a maximum of 1,000 people – until the pandemic struck. John then tasked the team with starting over, creating an event that took full advantage of its new virtual status. Producer, Emily Haggard; Head of Comms, David Langton; Marketing Lead, Ruth Thornett; Event Consultant, Robert Digings; and Rail Wellbeing Alliance Representative from RSSB, Michelle O’Sullivan, worked with Quadrant Events to create something never before seen in the industry. “I’m enormously proud to have been part of Rail Wellbeing Live and to have been involved from the very start, when there was nothing more than two or three sentences on a sheet of paper,” said Robert, an independent consultant for 25 years, who is experienced in facilitating live event production. Enormous success “From that concept of creating an event dedicated to wellbeing we have created something that was attended by 13,000 people, with over 37,000 sessions attended by individuals from 600 different railway organisations across two days. “As a first event it was an enormous success and heartening to see the rail industry taking the wellbeing of staff so seriously. It was interesting and challenging in equal measure.” It is a view shared by Emily: “I was immensely proud to be working with a fantastic team of people to deliver this event. Rail Wellbeing Live was an exciting event to produce – completely changing our strategy on more than one occasion!” The challenges were probably amplified by not just launching a new brand, but doing so in year when the events calendar has been decimated by the pandemic. 40 | December 2020
“During the first few months of this year we were planning a one-day event in Coventry and then of course coronavirus happened and that changed things enormously,” said Robert. “It was some point in April that we decided it wouldn’t be a real-world event in Coventry
As a first event it was an enormous success and heartening to see the rail industry taking the wellbeing of staff so seriously because of all the uncertainty surrounding the pandemic. It was then that we turned our attention to doing something innovative with a virtual event and looked at what going virtual would enable us to do and what benefits it would have.
“One thing for certain is that cancelling the event full stop was not an option. To do so would be a real missed opportunity; particularly during a pandemic when everybody was and is so concerned about their health and wellbeing.” In the end, a dedicated team of organisers manage to find a platform and compile a comprehensive mix of speakers for one of the largest ever events dedicated to health and wellbeing in the rail industry. Andy Hogben, from Quadrant Events, said: “We worked with a fantastic client team to produce an event that was ambitious in scale and hugely successful in its delivery. “The whole event has been one of the highlights of a difficult year. The two areas we were most pleased with were the quality and scope of the programme we were able to design for the event, along with two days of flawless technical delivery which really brought the event to life.” Among those contributing included mental health advocate and entertainer Ruby Wax, BBC Breakfast’s resident doctor Dr Rangan Chatterjee, Embarrassing Bodies star Dr Dawn Harper, and retiring RMT General Secretary Mick Cash, who gave a deeply personal interview about his railbusinessdaily.com
