The event united broadcasters, streaming brands, technology vendors, outside broadcast (OB) companies, studios, diversity leaders, recruiters and education representatives to drive discussions in collaborative workshops and panels throughout the afternoon. Facilitators and experts from across the skills, education and diversity landscape led the sessions, encouraging interactive participation and active contributions toward the outcomes and any commitments made.
Many major players in the M&E and media technology sectors are seeing a skills shortage and a disproportionately ageing white male workforce. For example, across the UK’s wider creative industries, only a third of managerial and director roles are held by women, while over 90% of professionals in these sectors are white, according to recent research by the Creative Industries Policy & Evidence Centre.
The inaugural World Skills Café was held from 2pm – 5pm on Thursday 12 September at RAI Amsterdam.
Currently, there is no dedicated global forum for knowledge-sharing and information on best practice around how to address these issues, or any established methods to understand how organisations can work together to confront these challenges. The inaugural World Skills Café addressed these issues, providing a focal point for sharing in-depth, first-hand experiences and an innovation hub for developing tangible solutions to workplace and diversity challenges.
The session examined the current skills shortages in-depth to really understand which roles the skills gap is hitting and who is being underrepresented in the media technology sector.
The immediate goal of the World Skills Café was to create a ‘live’ Manifesto document that can be viewed by industry, outlining commitments made during the Café that individuals and companies will pledge to deliver, alongside a written report. These commitments will then be reviewed in 2025 to see how much progress and action has been taken and how the skills landscape has shifted in the first year.
