About this Event
Tales of the Unexpected
Curiosity in a Crisis
It’s Sunday 4th March, 2018. A quiet afternoon in Salisbury. Two people are found unconscious on a park bench.
Within days, the city is at the centre of an international incident involving Russia, chemical weapons and one of the world's deadliest nerve agents.
Most business leaders will never face a crisis on the scale of Salisbury poisonings. But every leader will experience uncertainty, incomplete information and moments when the stakes suddenly get higher.
The real test isn't having all the answers.
It's how you think, decide and lead when you don't.
As Director of Public Health for Wiltshire Council, Professor Tracy Daszkiewicz found herself at the heart of an extraordinary multi-agency response involving hundreds of police officers, scientists, public health experts, NHS teams, government departments and specialist military personnel. Nine sites required specialist decontamination, more than 1,000 samples were analysed and the scientific response became the largest of its kind in Britain since the Second World War.
Earlier this year the extraordinary events and the people caught up in them were revisited in Channel 4's landmark three-part documentary, Salisbury Poisonings: The Untold Story. With unprecedented access to those on the frontline, the series revealed the human story behind an international crisis that shocked the world.
At Curious Community, Tracy will take us behind that story and explore what it can teach us about how people, organisations and communities respond to the unexpected, and the role curiosity can play in a crisis.
The Salisbury story wasn't simply about responding to a public health emergency. It was about being confronted with something completely unexpected and having to make sense of it in real time.That experience has continued to shape Tracy’s career, deepening her interest in the role of public health in humanitarian recovery, a subject she went on to explore through her PhD research. Today, as Executive Director of Public Health & Strategic Partnerships at Aneurin Bevan University Health Board and President of the UK Faculty of Public Health, she brings those learnings to a much broader challenge: how to create healthier communities, tackle inequalities and prepare for challenges we can't always predict.
When certainty disappears, curiosity matters.
About Curious Community
Curious Community is where founders, leaders and doers gather in the pursuit of building better businesses, stronger economies and fairer communities - powered by people, driven by purpose and rooted in place.
It’s for those who don’t have all the answers but are prepared to question the ones we have. The critical thinkers challenging the status quo and the ‘it’s always been done this way’ brigade. The counter consensus crowd who are curious enough to think differently and find a better way.
It’s for those who believe that growth isn’t just linear — a straight line up to the right. But that it’s also about depth — going deeper into your craft, your culture, your people and your community.
So join the movement and be part of the curious conversations. Because we believe that where curiosity leads, opportunity follows.
We know curious ends in ‘us’. But it also starts with us!
Event venue & nearby stays
Parkway Hotel & Spa, Cwmbran Drive, Cwmbran, United Kingdom
Concerts, fests, parties, meetups — all the happenings, one place.