As part of an ongoing initiative to increase and encourage female involvement in the sports industry, the inaugural UCFB Women in Sport Conference was held at Wembley Stadium this week.

The highly-anticipated event, which was designed to act as a networking and support session for young females that aspire to work in football and sport, was hosted by FATV presenter Rachael Downie and provided UCFB students with a unique opportunity to engage with both UCFB graduates and industry professionals.

Guests were divided into three panels: UCFB alumni, an interactive session and industry professionals. Guests included former Olympian and Head of Marketing at LAPS, Gail Emms; UCFB graduate Amy O’Connor, who now works for Watford FC as their Sponsorship & Partnership Account Manager; and Michelle Farrer, Care Manager at the Premier League.

Speaking to UCFB after the event about how opportunities for women in football have increased throughout her career, Michelle said: “I was 18 (when I started my career) and life was quite different; there weren’t very many females on the staff at The FA, and those that were were mostly in secretarial positions which is what I took when I first went there.”

She continued: “Now though, I do think there are much more opportunities for females working in sport.”

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Following the conference, event organiser and UCFB staff member, Rumina Dimova, said: “The inaugural UCFB Women in Sport Conference was a huge success; as a company we’re committed to helping provide our female students with unrivalled support and networking opportunities, and the conference certainly provided this.

“The idea behind the conference was to create an environment where students could engage with those that possess similar aspirations, whilst also allowing them to gain a crucial insight into how female industry professionals have forged careers within sport. We’d like to thank all of our panellists and students for attending the event, and we look forward to hosting many similar events in the future.”