Five Minutes With: Amanpreet Sidhu

Five Minutes With… Amanpreet

My name is Amanpreet Sidhu, and I work in Conference and Events Administration at St Catherine’s College. I’ve been at Catz since September 2024, supporting the smooth planning and delivery of conferences and events across College.

What do you do at Catz, in one sentence? 

I provide administrative support for conferences and events at Catz, helping to make sure everything runs smoothly from planning through to delivery. 

What do you enjoy most? 

What I enjoy most is seeing the different departments and teams at Catz come together to deliver conferences and events seamlessly. It’s really rewarding to work behind the scenes and then watch everything come to life on the day, knowing that good teamwork and careful planning have played a big part. 

What’s on your desk right now? 

A bit of everything! At the moment my desk is home to a calculator, pen holder, notebook, keyboard and mouse – alongside a few essentials like Lemsip, a 1.5L water jug, my phone, and even a teddy bear. 

What’s a skill you have that most people don’t know about? 

I’m very good at creating and managing Waterfall project plans, which helps me break complex processes into clear, manageable stages and keep everything on track. 

What’s the best advice you’ve ever been given? 

That there is always something to be learned from everyone in the room. Even if you think you know it all, someone can offer a new perspective or help you see something familiar in a different way. Staying open and learning from each other is essential, no matter who they are or what they do. 

What’s something people don’t know about you?

I’ve lived and worked in five different countries. I was born and raised in Canada, where I started my career, before working on humanitarian projects in India (Himachal Pradesh and Punjab). I’ve coordinated micro-financing projects for women in rural communities in Tanzania (Karatu), helped build rainwater harvesting tanks to improve access to clean water, and ran an orphanage in Masaka, Uganda. I also worked as an ESL teacher in South Korea before moving to the UK in 2019 to complete my Master’s in Entrepreneurship, and began my career in Higher Education in 2020. 

What’s one thing you’re excited about next term? 

I’m really looking forward to the Conference Oxford Annual Symposium taking place in January. It’s a highlight of the term.

What’s a project or idea you’d love to explore in future? 

I’d love to explore ways to automate the student booking process, to make it more efficient and user-friendly for everyone involved. 

****** 

If you’d like to spend Five Minutes With…, drop us a line at collegecomms@stcatz.ox.ac.uk to find out more.