Held at Open, the event attracted a mix of current and aspiring leaders from businesses across the Cambridge Norwich Tech Corridor. The aim was to provide additional leadership development support for the people behind the fast-growing, innovative tech businesses which are significantly fuelling the Eastern region’s economy.
Ruben Davis, Senior Technology Recruitment Consultant at Pure, explained: “Independent research suggests the Tech Corridor could bring an additional £2.75bn to our regional economy by 2031 and create 26,000 more new jobs. To ensure this happens, one of the core aims of the Tech Corridor team is to ‘show the world that we have the people, companies and culture to match any of the leading tech clusters’. Leadership development, people strategy and company culture are all things we are extremely passionate about here at Pure and this is where we felt we could add real value and support.”
“We know that anything culture and people related needs to be driven from the top and by company leaders. We want to help those who have progressed into leadership roles, and the people who become Executives through founding their own companies, to understand the part they can play and the difference it can make. Even the most established and experienced leaders are facing a fast-moving industry, an even faster changing world of work and extreme competition for top tech talent. We know from our own work in supporting with technology recruitment that access to the right skills is the number one challenge facing tech businesses today. Organisations in our region need to be in the best possible position to be able to compete for and retain top talent, which again comes down to leadership, culture and employer brand. While there are already lots of excellent tech industry networking events in our region, we felt there was a need for a forum specially focused on leadership development and support.”
Pure worked in strategic partnership with Barclays Eagle Labs, Tech East, and the Institute of Directors to organise and host the inaugural Tech Leaders event on 26 September. Guest speakers included leadership expert Mark Williams who delivered an engaging presentation on ‘Leadership that gets results’ and James Duez, Co-founder and CEO of Rainbird Technologies who shared his journey and experience of being a technology leader.
Ruben added: “Our aim was to create a forum where current and aspiring tech industry leaders could take time out to concentrate on their own professional development, to network with each other, and to explore the softer skills of leadership and its impact on culture and employee engagement. I hope everyone took a lot away from the event and we have already been in touch to ask for feedback and ideas for future sessions. For us, this marks the start of an exciting journey to build the best Technology Leadership network in the Eastern region.”
The first Tech Leaders event was jointly hosted by Pure, Barclays Eagle Labs, Tech East and the Institute of Directors. For more information and to be kept informed of future events sign up here.