A well-attended cocktail event at the River Club venue. Originally intended to be a celebration with our regional project award winners receiving their framed certificates, that part of the evening was soon over. A panel of five was then interviewed by Alice Chang and Catherine Blersch, reflecting on some of the broader issues stemming from CEO Manglin Pillay’s “Out on a rib” and Alice’s “Too sensitive” articles in the July issue of Civil Engineering. On the issue of time away when the family arrives, panellists agreed that we need a shift in mindset regarding caregiving responsibilities. Allowing (and encouraging) fathers flexibility and time off to care for their infants would be a great start. As to attitudes towards women joining the profession, there seemed to be differences in the experiences, perhaps dependent on the particular people at the helm at the time, and they do have to demonstrate their abilities to those around them before being accepted on equal terms. Although great progress has been made in attracting women to civil engineering, much work is still needed in creating work environments which keep these women in the profession, as evidenced by the relatively low numbers of professionally registered female engineers. Take this unpleasant one for example – Lynne had been asked by a colleague how she should react after a client had solicited sexual favours. It seems that having an appropriate mentor is a must.