Why is a property company hosting an event on diversity in the tech sector?

On Thursday 12^th October, OBI Property partnered with Enterprise City UK to discuss the pressing issue of the lack of diversity in the workplace. There are a number of Manchester’s business community which feel that the lack of diversity is a contributing factor to the serious digital skills gap that we have in the city. The question has been asked as to whether Manchester’s tech culture is becoming “Pale, male and stale”.

Another question you might reasonably ask is “Why is a property company hosting an event on diversity in the tech sector?”

OBI Property and ECUK looked to address ‘true diversity’ in the workplace. It is evident that Manchester’s businesses are underrepresented in a number of areas; sex, ethnicity, disability, socio-economic, amongst other areas. We felt it was necessary to bring together a number of Manchester’s CEOs, influencers and advocates of diversity to provide a platform to discuss the challenges in the workforce.

A number of our clients are fast-growth tech and digital businesses including the likes of UKFast, Tunafish Media and Rentalcars, amongst others. We therefore have a strong understanding of the challenges within this sector. It is our role to provide forward-thinking spaces for these forward-thinking businesses and it is important we ingrain ourselves in their challenges.

Immersing ourselves in their challenges allows us to provide solutions that sit outside of real estate strategy (as well as inside). For example, we are able to promote issues and bring together people from our strong network in order to discuss these issues and provide the best solutions to support our clients.

We felt it fitting to join forces with Enterprise City UK as this is in motion to become Manchester’s leading eco-system for technology, digital and creative businesses. However, more importantly ECUK has been looking at methods in which it can weave diversity deeper in to its product offering.

At OBI, we’re always learning, and only by developing a full understanding of wider issues in business such as diversity can we continue to provide the best possible advice to our clients.

Over our seven years, it’s been an honour to play a part in helping to shape the city and we believe it’s right that we provide forums that add to the level of intelligent debate and discourse, which could help affect change where necessary.

If you have any questions regarding the event please don’t hesitate to get in touch. The video will be available next week!