Engage Debates
UPFRONT 9
Engage Debates
London’ s Ethnic Minority think-tank committed to ensuring the Legacy- 2012 and beyond e ngage UK is proud to have facilitated 16 networking events for the Capital’ s diverse-owned businesses over the last 24 months. The events have taken place within London’ s corporate powerhouses, enabling small, micro and macro minority-owned businesses to interact with key members from FTSE 100 procurement teams.
Going forward, engage will be running a series of events that tap into and facilitate Britain’ s entrepreneurial talent. However, it will be essential to get government backing. This is not about affirmative action but demographic change- a clear business case. Engage is committed to working with all stakeholders who wish to see London and the UK’ s minority-owned enterprises prosper through economic and sustainable business growth.
Our mid-summer networking event was held at the Merrill Lynch’ s London head office and coverage of the evening unfolds over the next few pages. Our American guest speaker spoke of the barriers that still needed to broken down in the UK marketplace if supplier diversity is to flourish on this side of the Atlantic. CompeteFor and UKTI were positive about real 2012 opportunities for business growth and Optimum Consultancy brought the audience back to earth by outlining the complexities of negotiating the public procurement chain. Engage’ s publisher talked about how public and private organisations need to look at‘ consortiums’ as a way of addressing the inbalance when contracts are awarded where there is a will- there is a way.... Some great learnings, but are we learning? The picture is still developing, but are we in the right frame.
ISSUE SEVEN 2008 engage | uk