Networking

Today there was a doctoral training workshop on the topic of networking. Unfortunately I had to miss it in order to go to a business women's networking event.

Amongst the many interesting women that I met, in a friendly and non-threatening atmosphere was one Woman of Particular Interest for my research topic. WPI is a senior civil servant, joining the civil service only about 18 months ago, with experience of having been a consultant and of using consultants in the civil service. She tells me that accountability is not so much of an issue. She finds that red tape is a nuisance and so encourages people to get round it, take more risks, but calculated risks, taken with knowledge. She said that projects that involve consultants need not go wrong if they are correctly managed and we discussed the NAO guidelines. It was encouraging to find someone who was practically interested in what I'm researching and willing to talk to me. I hope we'll be in touch again when I come to do my interviews.