Women’s Safety in Hospitality – Creating Safer Spaces – 14th October 2024 – Recap

Women in the Food Industry held an essential panel discussion on “Women’s Safety in Hospitality,” bringing together industry leaders and experts to explore the critical issue of safeguarding women in hospitality workplaces and public spaces. This event aimed to foster dialogue, share best practices, and develop actionable strategies to combat violence, harassment, and unsafe working conditions for women in the sector.

Our panel included :

Jamie Klingler is a writer, consultant & campaigner for women’s safety and police reform. Jamie brings a wealth of experience to her speaking and media engagements, with a successful track record in film production, media, publishing and marketing. She launched ShortList Magazine in the UK as its Photo Director and Finance Manager and in ten years, rose to the Head of Publishing for the whole group. She won Marketeer of the Year in 2016. In 2021, Klingler was ranked ninth in PRWeek’s UK Communicators of the Year for her work with Reclaim These Streets. Jamie is now the Chief Communications Officer for the Tomorrow Group, a consortium of digital marketing and data agencies.

Sofia Gassne is the founder of Culture Bar, Head of HR at Hawksmoor, and a member of the London Mayor’s Steering Group for the Women’s Night Safety Charter. With over 20 years of experience in hospitality, she advises businesses on strategies to create safer working environments. She delivers training on workplace culture, focusing on problematic language often disguised as banter, as well as anti-harassment and sexual harassment prevention measures. She was named one of Hospitality’s Women of the Year by CODE in both 2023 and 2024.

Mollie Waite is the Floor Supervisor at Seven Dials Market. Mollie takes primary lead over the Floor team, but also supports all of the team members to deliver excellence and success within a venue serving approximately 45,000 guests per week. Mollie has a passion for women’s safety. She is the leading force for the implementation of the Women’s Night Safety Charter (WNSC) at the venue, ensuring a safer environment for all.

Miranda Hibbert is Vulnerabilities Manager at Richmond & Wandsworth Borough Councils. She takes the lead on tackling violence against women and girls and domestic abuse for two London Boroughs. Managing a team of specialist staff on both a reactive and proactive response to Violence Against Women and Girls – VAWG & Domestic Abuse. They are working on implementing a three year strategy to tackle VAWG, while maintaining several accredited statutes, and proving a statutory support service.

The event was chaired by :

Mex Ibrahim is co-founder of Women in the Food Industry. After almost 8 years as Head of Social Media & Marketing of the UK’s fastest growing food website, Great British Chefs, Mex has delivered a variety of award-winning digital marketing campaigns & now runs her own freelance social media, content creation & digital strategy business. Passionate about women’s equality & female empowerment, she co-founded Women in the Food Industry in April 2019 which became a Community Interest Company in July 2023.

Richmond & Wandsworth Borough Council had a stand at the event representing their Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) initiative.

There were assets and information on how this particular local government’s policies and support systems are working to protect women from violence and harassment in hospitality and beyond. It was particularly interesting to hear about their free Active Bystander Training events. These in-person or online training sessions help people deal with witnessing an incident in the street, at work, or on public transport and give pointers on what to do without compromising their own or anyone else’s safety.

The evening was a gathering of hospitality professionals, HR leaders, policymakers, and advocates looking to create safer environments for women. it provided an opportunity to come together to initiate change and make hospitality a safer industry for all.

Huge thanks to Jamie Klingler and Priya Narain – Purpose & Impact Manager at KERB who along with Mex Ibrahim decided it was about time a discussion like this took place. We were delighted to see what lunch at KERB’s Cowcross Yards street market in the summer developed into. We look forward to future collaborations together.

Watch this space for more photos and updates of the event.

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