Re-Fresher Workshops

This workshop is all about helping you to understand today's job market and how to stand out. We'll cover what's hot in the job scene, what challenges you might face, and how you can make the most of opportunities out there. We'll talk about things like finding your niche, making connections that count, and crafting a personal brand around that.

Speaker: Emily Moffat (History 2018) – Head of Talent, Basecamp Talent and Fearless Adventures 

After graduating from Newcastle University 2018, Emily went to work internally at a technology recruitment agency, hiring across the US and UK. She was approached by Dominic McGregor, Founder of Social Chain, after building a 20,000 strong following on LinkedIn to be part of the founding team at venture capital fund Fearless Adventures. Soon after starting there, and hiring for their investment portfolio, she launched Basecamp Talent along with her founders to support other startups to scaleups with their hiring.

Taking the vantage point of an election year, this workshop will look at Britain's place in the world, applying both historic and more recent context. It will consider challenges both external - Europe, Ukraine, Israel/Palestine, China - and internal: a government elected on a mandate to withdraw Britain from the EU, but defined thereafter by instability, and an opposition party which has shifted dramatically in foreign policy terms in the space of a parliament, 2024 is, moreover, also an election year for Britain's closest ally, the outcome of which may be the return of President Trump.

Speaker: Speaker: Martin Farr - Senior Lecturer in Contemporary British History, Newcastle University 

With degrees in politics and history, Martin Farr teaches and researches contemporary history: the history of the present. He's broadcast and published widely, including books and articles on the First and Second world wars; British politics, parties, and elections; the media, US-UK relations, foreign and defence policy, popular culture, Margaret Thatcher, and tourism. He's been particularly engaged with the Russia-Ukraine, and the Israel-Gaza, wars, in 2024 as the global year of elections - and in British responses to them, both popular and official.

There is a lot of excitement and hype surrounding Generative AI, including Large Language Models such as ChatGPT. Discover how Generative Artificial Intelligence can democratise knowledge access by enabling new text, graphics and movies to be created through a natural language interface. We will illustrate this with practical, business applications drawn from our experience in the National Innovation Centre for Data’s projects with companies and the public sector. This will include the real-world impacts but also the very real hurdles to implementing business solutions using this rapidly evolving technology

Speakers: Professor Paul Watson and Dr. Mac Misiura

Paul Watson FREng FBCS CEng is Director of the UK's National Innovation Centre for Data and Professor of Computer Science at Newcastle University. He began his career at Manchester University before moving to industry. In 1995 he joined Newcastle University where his research and teaching has focussed on scalable data engineering. Professor Watson is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering and a Fellow of the British Computer Society. He received the 2014 Microsoft Jim Gray eScience Award. 
 
Dr. Maciej Misiura is a Data Scientist at the National Innovation Centre for Data, with a background in statistics and machine learning. Specialising in Generative Artificial Intelligence and Natural Language Processing (NLP), he brings a pragmatic approach to solving complex business challenges for a diverse clientele, ranging from start-ups to FTSE 100 corporations. His most recent client projects focused on leveraging state-of-the-art large language models to automate and accelerate the process of extracting insights from documents. His practical experience in the field of GenAI and NLP makes him an invaluable asset in driving innovation and success.

Workshop focusing on techniques to promote self-care including kindness, self-compassion, and gratitude. Join this experiential interactive session combining theory and practical exercises to: 
 
- Understand what mindfulness is  
- Understand the importance of self-care 
- Understand the emotional regulation system and its impact on health and wellbeing 
- Learn mindfulness meditation techniques to soothe and reduce the effects of stress

Speaker: Mark Sidney – Mindful Therapies

Mark Sidney is a distinguished Leadership and Performance Coach, and trainer, holding a BA (Hons) in Psychology and Sociology from the University of Leeds. With an unwavering passion for understanding human behaviour, Mark has woven mindfulness into his life and career since the early 1980s, developing a steadfast meditation practice from 2012. Mark is an accredited mindfulness teacher, authorized to teach the Mindfulness Based Living Course and Workplace MT, demonstrating his commitment to spreading mindfulness principles. His qualifications also include an Advanced Diploma in Leadership and Performance Coaching from Northumbria University, Yoga Teacher Certification, and a qualification to teach in the lifelong learning sector.