Empowerment in Action

Agenda:

8:00am – Registration and Networking Breakfast

8:45am – Opening Remarks

9:15am – Stress Wisely: The Essential Tools for Living and Working Well 

The Stress Wisely approach is a kind-hearted reckoning against everything we have learned about stress delivered as a knockout punch.

Dr Robyne Hanley Dafoe, with her signature honesty, humour, relatability and gift of translating scientific research, invites you to lean into the parts of you that intuitively knows there must be a better way to achieve greatness in both livelihood and lifestyle. Using the eight realms of wellness, Dr Robyne presents deep, yet clear and concise, insights and strategies that are instantly actionable.

Learn to harness stress as an ally, not an adversary, and elevate your capacity for peak performance and resilience. It’s time to stress wisely and live well. Audience members learn to transform their relationship with stress, gaining actionable strategies to harness it as a powerful ally for achieving peak performance and enhanced resilience.

10:15am – Networking and Vendor Tradeshow Break

10:45am – Women in Leadership Panel

This panel features women in executive leadership roles within manufacturing organizations who are helping reshape what leadership looks like in the sector. Through honest conversation, they’ll share how their companies are creating space for flexibility, balance, and long-term career growth without lowering expectations or ambition. It’s a chance to hear what’s changing, what’s working, and how manufacturing can continue to be a place where women build meaningful careers and full lives.

11:30am – Networking Lunch

12:15pm – Afternoon Breakout Session #1 – Participants may select one

1. a) Transforming Workplace Culture for Lasting Psychological Safety – A cumulative session that integrates key insights, moving participants from awareness and understanding to committed, sustained action. Attendees will review critical lessons from women’s workplace experiences, the organizational costs of compromised psychological safety, and the essential leadership behaviours required to build inclusive environments.  Hosted by Janelle Abela, Diverse Solutions.
2. b) Strategic Roundtable Discussion – The strategic roundtable discussion is designed to create space for open, meaningful conversation among women in skilled trades. Rather than a formal presentation, this session brings participants together around shared topics and challenges to exchange ideas, learn from one another, and explore practical solutions. It’s a collaborative environment where lived experience drives the conversation, new connections are made, and collective insight helps shape what comes next – for individuals, workplaces, and the trades as a whole.  Topics to be announced.

1:15pm – Women on the Tools Panel

This panel features skilled tradeswomen who work on the tools and are building lasting careers in manufacturing. They’ll share how they found their way into the trades, what they learned along the way, and what they wish they had known when they were just starting out. Looking ahead, they’ll talk about where they want to grow next and what’s possible for women who choose this path.

2:00pm – Breakout Session #1 – Participants may select one

1. a) Leading with Confidence – this session explores how confidence shows up in leadership and how it can be developed over time. This session invites participants to reflect on presence, decision-making, and influence, and how these elements shape the way leadership is experienced by others. Through shared perspectives and conversation, attendees will consider approaches to leading with clarity and authority in their own roles and environments.  Hosted by Mimi Moore, Pourquoi Pas Coaching International.
2. b) Strategic Roundtable Discussion – The strategic roundtable discussion is designed to create space for open, meaningful conversation among women in skilled trades. Rather than a formal presentation, this session brings participants together around shared topics and challenges to exchange ideas, learn from one another, and explore practical solutions. It’s a collaborative environment where lived experience drives the conversation, new connections are made, and collective insight helps shape what comes next – for individuals, workplaces, and the trades as a whole. Topics to be announced.

3:00pm – Farewell

EMC’s HerJourney initiative is funded in part by the Government of Canada’s Canadian Apprenticeship Strategy.