Why the best ideas don’t happen in silos: BRILLIANT Ambassador Laura Giddings on the power of connection
Laura Giddings has been part of BRILLIANT almost from the very beginning. Having worked in STEM education outreach for more than a decade, and with a background in events and exhibitions, she was naturally curious when she first heard about a new education event taking shape in the north.
That curiosity led to a conversation with BRILLIANT Festival Director, Martyn Collins, initially intended to be a quick chat. Ninety minutes later, Laura had shared her thoughts, Martyn had asked if she wanted to get involved, and a relationship began that has continued to evolve alongside BRILLIANT itself.
Today, Laura is a BRILLIANT Ambassador and National STEM Education Co-ordinator at Canal & River Trust, where she works to connect schools, young people and educators with real-world STEM experiences, linking curriculum learning with careers in areas including engineering, environmental science and sustainability.
For Laura, what makes BRILLIANT special is something that was apparent from its earliest days: the appetite from educators to come together, learn from one another and find better ways to prepare young people for what comes next.
From a room at the Albert Dock to the STEM and EdTech event of the North
Laura remembers attending the very first BRILLIANT conference, when the event looked very different to the festival it has become today. There were no rows of exhibitors or huge exhibition spaces. Instead, educators gathered alongside people from industry for conversations about education, innovation and STEM.
One of the things that stayed with her was the commitment schools made to be there.
“Schools had effectively trusted BRILLIANT with their INSET day and brought educators along. Not many schools would do that unless they could see real value in it,” says Laura.
Since then, Laura has watched BRILLIANT grow into what she describes as an increasingly important STEM and EdTech event for the North.
Having worked on education projects around the world, she believes there is something particularly powerful about seeing regions build their own communities of educators, employers and, as Laura puts it, it is “nice not to be in London for once.”
But geography is only part of the story. What has kept BRILLIANT firmly marked in Laura’s calendar every year is the opportunity to meet people face-to-face.
“If I wasn’t involved in the content, I would 100% be using this as a networking day. The value of the network of people who attend BRILLIANT is huge.”
Connections that continue long after BRILLIANT
Networking can sometimes feel like an abstract benefit of attending an event. For Laura, however, there are very real examples of what can happen when the right people find themselves in the same place.
Through her own consultancy and wider STEM network, Laura has encouraged colleagues and contacts from all over the country to attend BRILLIANT over the years. She has subsequently watched people win awards, join the agenda, build their profiles and create new professional relationships at our event.
One example is Yash Narain, who Laura encouraged to become involved in BRILLIANT. His first speaking opportunity focused on AI in education from the perspective of a young person. He arrived understandably nervous and, with only a few hours' notice, also found himself joining a panel discussion.
He went on to make connections at the event and build confidence, resulting in developing a great network with his recent internship at IBM, enabling him to have engaging and impactful conversations with global leaders in EdTech.
For Laura, that is what makes the BRILLIANT network valuable. The benefit isn't necessarily about what you personally walk away with at the end of the day. Sometimes it is about introducing two people who would never otherwise have met, giving somebody their first platform or watching a member of your network find an opportunity that changes their direction.
“Seeing my peers gain opportunity, exposure and evolve themselves is great. Now they’re on a stage and making excellent connections.”
Education is changing and industry needs to be part of that change.
Those connections are becoming increasingly important as education, skills and the economy evolve.
Laura believes the tide has been turning for some time towards a closer relationship between education and the world beyond it. Greater emphasis on careers education, work experience and employer engagement creates an opportunity for organisations to play a much more active role in helping young people understand where their learning could take them.
At Canal & River Trust, for example, STEM doesn't simply mean traditional engineering roles. The organisation uses its waterways as real-world learning environments, helping students explore everything from engineering and ecology to environmental sustainability, while its careers programmes introduce routes including apprenticeships, work experience and graduate opportunities.
The Trust cares for around 2,000 miles of waterways across England and Wales, an enormous piece of national infrastructure with its roots in the industrial revolution, with challenges firmly rooted in the 21st century.
That creates fascinating opportunities to show young people that STEM isn't confined to a laboratory, coding suite or engineering firm. It can mean using technology to maintain waterways, tackling biodiversity loss, responding to climate change, protecting historic infrastructure or finding entirely new solutions to environmental problems.
For Laura, organisations need to get better at telling those stories.
“How do we level ourselves up to make our opportunities and engagement attractive to young people entering green-skilled careers?”
And the audience isn't only young people. It is the people influencing the decisions they make, which includes teachers, teaching assistants, subject leaders, technicians, careers leaders and senior leaders.
Stop waiting for education and industry to magically find each other
One of Laura's biggest messages ahead of BRILLIANT is that collaboration has to work both ways.
Industry often says it wants to work with schools and schools often say they want more meaningful employer engagement, yet the two sides don't always know how, or when, to connect.
Laura believes some of the solutions can be surprisingly simple.
“Many organisations want to support education. They just don't know how and they don't know when. The sooner you ask, the more we can do.”
Solutions don't come from silos
That spirit of collaboration will sit at the heart of Laura's contribution to BRILLIANT this November.
Her message is simple: education, industry and young people cannot solve the challenges ahead independently.
“Solutions don't come from silos, and many of them won't come from boardrooms.”
Climate change is a perfect example. Young people are already deeply engaged with the subject and often bring ideas, questions and perspectives that organisations need to hear. Rather than treating them solely as recipients of education, there is an opportunity to involve them in solving real problems.
The same applies to educators. Industry may understand emerging technologies, workforce shortages and future skills requirements, but teachers understand their learners and classrooms. Bringing those perspectives together creates something much more powerful than either can achieve alone.
That is why Laura encourages anyone attending BRILLIANT to arrive with an open mind.
Educators should be asking what industry could help them achieve, and industry should be asking educators what they actually need. Most importantly, both should be listening to young people. And, crucially, those conversations shouldn't end when everyone leaves Exhibition Centre Liverpool this November.
One day can start a much bigger conversation
BRILLIANT takes place on 10 November 2026, but Laura's experience demonstrates why its impact doesn't have to be confined to one day.
A conversation can become a collaboration, an introduction can become an internship, a nervous first speaking opportunity can lead to another stage, another connection and another opportunity. An educator can discover an organisation they had never considered as a source of STEM inspiration, while an employer can finally understand how its people and expertise could support a classroom.
That is the real opportunity BRILLIANT creates.
As Laura has seen since those early days at the Albert Dock, when educators first put their trust in a new event and turned up ready to learn, there is a genuine appetite for these conversations.
Now the challenge is to make more of them happen. BRILLIANT brings educators, industry, innovators and young people into the same space. What happens next depends on the conversations we choose to start.