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Ayo Sokale      

Civil Engineer, BBC Presenter, Former Deputy Mayor of Reading, Sustainability, Motivational, STEM & Neurodiversity Speaker

BBC Presenter, Civil Engineer and a leading keynote speaker in her field - Ayo Sokale possesses an array of talents and expertise, working at the cutting edge of the scientific, environmental and media landscape.

A generation of young people have grown up following Sokale at the BBC - most prominently as the co-presenter on CBeebies of Get Set Galactic - an entertaining, science-based immersive gameshow, exploring themes from gravity and the Solar System to pollination, energy and much more and showcasing her love of working with children and sharing the joys of scientific learning, exploration and experimentation. Sokale has presented for BBC Reel and BBC Bitesize, where she’s covered the first principles on an array of scientific subjects from Physics to Design. She also works as TV expert on STEM issues - including documentaries for the likes of the Smithsonian, National Geographic, Discovery Channel, Yesterday TV and Channel 5 - and counts Shell, Heineken, Blue Yonder, the NHS and Thames Water among the leading clients she has worked with as a keynote speaker.

Sokale is a Chartered Civil Engineer and Project Team Manager for the Environment Agency in Eastern England and is a popular Keynote Speaker on the environment and sustainability. She was previously a project manager and BIM lead, pushing for innovative, efficient and sustainable delivery of flood and coastal risk management schemes. Sokale was a Graduate Civil Engineer on the Environment Agency’s training scheme where she undertook internal and external placements which enabled her to sign off her ICE training agreement in 2.5 years and achieve CEng in 3 years. A former Deputy Mayor of Reading, she campaigned tirelessly on sustainability issues in the area.

Sokale was selected as one of Professor Lord Robert Mair’s Future Leaders for his year as President of the ICE. She is one of the ICE’s Water Superheroes aptly named Eco Warrior (previously Angel) and is an excellent Motivational Speaker and Inspirational Speaker, particularly when it comes to inspiring young people to pursue STEM subjects. Sokale is a STEM ambassador and mentor, encouraging others to take up careers in Civil Engineering. She was also nominated for the Top 50 Women in Engineering under 35 initiative run by The Telegraph in partnership with The Women’s Engineering Society and is a popular Diversity and Inclusion Speaker, particularly during black History Month.

In recent years, Sokale has felt more able to talk about being on the autism spectrum. She has a diagnosis of Asperger’s syndrome and is an empathetic and inspirational keynote speaker on neurodiversity, mental health challenges and how to overcome them. She is writing her first book in the field of self development to support these endeavors.

Sokale loves the performing arts, fitness, has a passion for supporting great causes and has raised funds for a number of charities, using her platform as a beauty queen and finalist for Miss Galaxy England, Miss Earth and Miss Great Britain.

Speech Topics

Sustainability

  • Sustainability and the economy (Do our current economic practice make the cut?)
  • Sustainability and human psychology – growth and expansion (Natural desire to expand and grow – in natural conflict with the need to consume less etc)
  • Sustainability and class (The undue impact of natural consequence & policy on lower class – UK centric)
  • Sustainability and the future (Children, Malthusian Theory)
  • Sustainability and mental health (Rise in Nihilism and fear for the future)
  • Sustainability and technology (Case studies from the Built environment)
  • Sustainability and Innovation – what is innovation (research, implement technology, learning from failure, collaboration and sharing knowledge)
  • Climate change –The case for change - Adaption and Mitigation

Women in Tech, Construction & Stem

There has been a historical fight for equality.

Today in the modern world the fight has drifted to the fight for equal representation of women in tech, construction, and wider STEM. I talk about the value of this. Values such as: women in the room where the build environment and the technology that impact all our lives are designed and implemented.

I also paint another picture and discuss the careers currently predominate carried out by women and question the way these careers are perceived and valued. And explore the very important ways these industries also positively influence the world. I used this to challenge this new form of bias and the way its manifest in this arena.

I talk about myths and folklore and the representation of feminine and masculine energies and the way it’s being rewritten over time to paint a new picture that limits both ways of being and the need to understand these embedded cultural ideas and the impact this has on our behaviours and expectations of people (bias).

I like to talk about the natural diversity in the world around us taking lesson from Gary Ferguson – 8 master lessons of nature – where the diversity in wildflower has a critical role in the ecosystem and can be extrapolated to see it impact in our wider lives.

Diversity

  • What does Diversity truly mean?
  • Value the Difference

Neurodiversity

  • What is neurodiversity?

Social Commentary

  • So, you are different and a little disruptive?
  • How to think?

News

Ayo Sokale: What Does Being Black Mean to Me?
I was once asked ‘What being black meant to me’. I can recall my automatic robotic answer – excellence, resilience. All nonsense rhetoric now I reflect on it. So here are my reflections on it now: What does it mean to be black? When I relocated back to the UK, at the age of 9. This is the first time I recall being described as black. After all, before that point I was my parent’s child and simply a Nigerian. However, I would come to understand over time that being black was a different kind of identifier to one such a being a Nigerian. I would learn that being Black is a title with a heavy history – one that causes some people shame and discomfort when they think of the slavery so heavily associated with blackness in their minds. I would also learn that it a very well marketed idea. After all, just look at negative tropes and motifs associated with blackness in movies and TV at least until more recent re-imagining.

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