Over 10,000 people are expected to attend a new digital conference honouring black culture and entrepreneurship within the UK’s business and tech industry.
Running from 13 – 15 October, Black Tech Fest (BTF) will aim to help black professionals expand their network and celebrate their boldest innovations.
The event is built around three main pillars:
C:code - Summit for young people (U25’s) to explore career pathways in tech and finding job opportunities
Showcase - An awards ceremony celebrating technologists and diversity champions
Belonging – A flagship conference for mid-to-senior level leaders to explore inclusion through technology
The conference will host roundtables with government, HR Leaders, and venture capital firms to discuss how the entire tech space can use its collective platforms to drive a wider discussion.
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Ethnic minorities are likely under-represented in venture capital, according to a report by Diversity VC in July 2019. It is estimated by the British Computer Society that the percentage of black and ethnic minority people working in tech within the UK currently stands at 1-2%, but this is not known for sure.
The Diversity in Tech website reported that since companies with more than 250 employees now need to reveal their gender pay gap, a significant pay gap between ethnic minority and white employees has been revealed.
Black Tech Fest will discuss such topics but will also celebrate the diversity in tech that is in place, featuring executives from Microsoft, WPP, Adobe, DeepMind and Box.
BTF is being organised by Colorintech, a European nonprofit focused on increasing diversity in tech, and Informa Tech, the FTSE 100 media group which operates events and exhibitions across a range of sectors.
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The event's chairman and founder of Colorintech, Dion McKenzie said: “We created Black Tech Fest as we believe that tech has a huge role in both amplifying systemic issues of inequity but creating new innovations to solve it. Traditionally, initiatives around people of colour tend to be internally focussed rather than using their collective platforms to drive a wider discussion. Black Tech Fest will be a huge opportunity to take this conversation global.”
Existing initiatives that are presently helping those under-represented in UK’s tech scene include Afrotech Fest, UK Black Tech and OneTech, which has been created by Capital enterprise and JP Morgan Chase Foundation to help improve the diversity of London's tech scene.
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Find out more about Black Tech Fest and register interest in the event here.
