Monday 5 October saw the launch of our very first interactive online event: ODP Engage 2020.
We presented a week of guest speakers and content that was designed to engage, inspire and inform. To our delight, the event was a sell-out, so if you attended – thank you!
We hope you enjoyed ODP Engage as much as we did. If you couldn’t join us this time, don’t panic: all of the sessions and content can be viewed online for the next month. We’ll tell you how at the end of the article, but first let us share with you some of the highlights of ODP Engage.
Peter Schofield, our Head of Profession, opened the week
It was our pleasure to have Peter Schofield, Permanent Secretary Department for Work and Pensions and Head of the Operational Delivery Profession open the week. As ever, Peter expressed his admiration for the diverse and important work that ODP colleagues carry out, and explained why we should all be proud to be ODP. The first day also gave another chance to see ODP’s extremely well-received session at this year’s Civil Service Live, and Ann Langley (Deputy Programme Director, Places for Growth, Cabinet Office) explained what OPD actually is, why it’s important and what it offers colleagues.
Each day of the event from Tuesday to Friday was themed around one of the four pillars of ODP: Development, Community, Progression and Response. These days saw some fantastic online sessions that gave more information about Operational Delivery Apprenticeship Schemes; legal awareness; recognising and adapting your own communication style and building an ODP community. These sessions were complemented by blogs and social media posts in which ODP colleagues recounted their own learning and development journeys.
A different perspective, and some invaluable and thought-provoking insights on career progression were provided by Paul Morrison, Director of Strategy, Legal, Communications and Governance at the Food Standards Agency and Derek Thomas, Chief Operating Officer of the Valuation Office Agency.
Linking in with learning
As well as our fantastic event, we also linked in with two worthwhile campaigns throughout the week. Both Learning at Work Week and National Customer Service Week have strong ties to ODP’s core values and are easily relatable to our work delivering for customers.
Helping you to meet your five days of learning, ODP Engage was the perfect opportunity to celebrate learning and focus on customer service; providing you with sessions, videos and blogs throughout the week.
Unmissable moments
As many of you who joined us will agree, some of the most unmissable moments of ODP Engage 2020 were provided by colleagues with inspiring personal stories to share. We heard from Charlotte MacMillan who refused to be deterred by the loss of her sight from gaining a fruitful apprenticeship with the Home Office. Kay Penkethman (DWP) movingly described how she overcame a series of personal tragedies to gain ODP qualifications up to Masters Degree level and Iain McKinnon told us how his childhood aspirations eventually aligned with his current role in the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority.
ODP in action
ODP Engage also provided the perfect platform for a couple of exciting special announcements. The first related to the launch of LISTR – a bespoke cross-government people connections tool for Operational Delivery professionals. This session was really well received and prompted viewer feedback such as “Excellent presentation and really looking forward to accessing the new LISTR tools”. You can watch the LISTR launch session at ODP Engage and find out how to sign up here: ODP Engage Listr and Career Frameworks session.
The second announcement revealed that in 2021 we’ll be hosting the first ever ODP Awards! This is still a bit hush-hush for now, but we’ll be revealing more information on our social media channels (Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook) and via our newsletters.
So… not withstanding the odd technical issue, we’ve had phenomenal feedback from you about ODP Engage 2020. It seems our first ever virtual event has been a resounding success. We couldn’t have achieved this without our outstanding guest speakers and, of course you, so we send you big thanks! We hope you found the week enjoyable, useful and inspirational and we look forward to seeing you at the next event.
Relive ODP Engage 2020 on demand
Didn’t make it to ODP Engage or want to relive the best bits? All of the sessions are available for the next month. Simply go to the ODP Engage website and register (new users) or sign in with your existing registration details and go to ‘My sessions’ to watch.
