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Empowering Inclusive Leadership at London Tech Week 2020

Young tech talent turns the mentor/mentee relationship on it’s head, talking to employers about what diversity means to them.

We launched our new name, Stride, at London Tech Week 2020.

The week-long festival saw over 24k people attend online events on innovation, talent, tech for good, diversity and digital transformation. Our events brought together some of our most exciting partners to talk about South London, starting up in tech and making opportunities fairer for people that are underrepresented in the sector.

In this lively session, young people from South London turn the mentor/mentee relationship on its head.

“We sincerely appreciate the pivotal role that Stride played in making London Tech Week a success and bringing critical narratives through Stride and OneTech to the ecosystem and audiences. The conversations dived in and supported the sector in driving forward innovation and collaboration.”

Suzy Pallett, London Tech Week Festival Director

When asked what they hate hearing when tech companies talk about Diversity & Inclusion, a group of 16-25 year olds said things like “The term BAME” and “That companies’ senior teams are all white males”. Stride’s four young mentors posed these statements to tech business leaders including Microsoft and Nettoken, opening up an honest conversation between young tech talent and employers to explore what diversity means to them.

Over 280 attendees including IBM, Amazon and WeWork joined the discussion, asking the panellists for important insights on how to be an ally in the tech workplace, how recruitment should be more accessible to diverse talent and radical suggestions for what companies should start doing to improve representation.

We will be working with Still Curious over the next two years to deliver more opportunities for change-makers to be inspired, connect and make impact.

Stay connected

“The main thing that stood out to me, especially in the current BLM climate and with Black History Month approaching is that a lot of companies want to support Black employees and open up their campaigns to Black creatives but don't know how.

My advice is to reach out to the communities you are in touch with or to the Black creatives you have in your network and ask questions, listen intently and work with them. The talent is there. Make space for celebrating our culture, food and future with us in the work place and listen more than you speak during those race related convos. More life and love!"

Abstract Benna, Spoken Word Poet

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