Spotlight on Emily Waddell and The City of Expertise 8 Mar 2023
Spotlight on Emily Waddell and The City of Expertise
Emily is a Board member of The City of Expertise
For International Women’s Day 2023, we’ve taken the opportunity to highlight a successful local woman who is proactive in her role to promote, support and retain professionals delivering essential services with top level standards within the city of St Albans. #EmbraceEquity
Tell us about the St Albans City of Expertise
The City of Expertise (COE) is a Special Interest Group (SIG) that was created to represent and promote the interests of the numerous professional service firms in St Albans, across a range of key disciplines.
The aim of the COE is to:
- Highlight to young professionals, all the benefits and advantages of working in St Albans.
- Host events for professionals at all levels, to help them network and build professional relationships, whilst learning new skills.
- Attract and retain talent at all levels within St Albans.
- Facilitate the sharing of information regarding local plans and developments from national and local government and other relevant bodies.
- Partner with organisations that offer clear business development opportunities, such as showcase events, to promote business in St Albans.
Members are professional service firms with overarching governing bodies
What is your involvement in the City of Expertise?
My first involvement was to organise the Young Professionals’ events, which I have now undertaken for almost eight years. The aim was to help the Young Professionals of St Albans build their connections, learn something new and take helpful information back to their jobs.
These events for Young Professionals have proved so successful, that now we are branching into similar networking events for more senior professionals.
Although the age range may have changed, but the focus has not and we help all our attendees to build business relationships and make connections that will be important to their careers. And hopefully we help them all learn new skills that will ensure they perform effectively in whatever role they occupy.
I currently sit on the Board and help steer the development of the COE, with responsibility for developing and maintaining the website, which offers a lot of valuable information and support for our members.
Tell us about you
I was born in St Albans, spent all my formative years here and now live in the city with my partner and young family – a two year-old and a five-year old, who keep me busy. I also spend time with my horse and dog, when I need to take my mind off work.
I have worked for more than 15 years in a variety of roles, but always in the professional services sector. I also sit on the St Albans Chamber of Commerce Board and on the Young Chamber committee.
Who do you work for?
I’m the Marketing & Business Development Manager at Taylor Walton Solicitors a full-service law firm, with offices in St Albans, Harpenden and Luton. I joined the firm in June 2022, with the remit to deliver an effective marketing and business development strategy.
I was drawn to the role and the firm by its fantastic culture and the work-life balance it has worked hard to develop in recent years. It is renowned as a progressive, innovative law firm, with talented lawyers backed by professional support teams, that ensure the client is at the heart of every decision we make.
What do you like about St Albans?
I may be biased having been born and bred in St Albans, but it truly is a perfect slice of England, with beautiful countryside on the doorstep and an array of inspirational architecture, including our wonderful Cathedral and the spectacular new museum based around our old Courthouse.
Given the problems reported elsewhere in the UK, we are blessed to have a very good high street, with a superb range of independent businesses from boutiques and book shops to fabulous coffee shops and amazing restaurants. There really is something for everyone.
Community spirit is also evident in the St Albans business sector – I love working with local businesses, supporting their ambition and helping them grow, as they create the new jobs we need to attract and retain talent.
What plans do you and the COE have for the next 12 months?
We will continue to host events for Young Professionals and the wider St Albans network to build a better-connected business community, who will share best practice and learning to help improve performance across the city.
We have also started a Thought Leadership programme to hear from the influential business and community leaders across St Albans, who can help us shape the future of the city.
A programme is in the pipeline for the COE to engage with businesses, to gain deeper insights into the needs and wants of those in St Albans, to ensure we future-proof the city for the economic challenging the UK faces.
How can people find out more about the COE and you?
I’m always around St Albans and I’m happy to meet and talk with anyone interested in what we do as a City or indeed in my role as Marketing & Business Development Manager for Taylor Walton.
There are lots of ways to get in touch, but these are probably the simplest ways to find out a bit more about me and what I do:
COE website: https://www.cityofexpertise.co.uk/
COE LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/st-albans-city-of-expertise/?viewAsMember=true
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/emily-waddell-4789025a/
TW profile: https://taylorwalton.com/people/emily-waddell/