Why CRN is relaunching the Women in Channel Awards

Why CRN is relaunching the Women in Channel Awards

Editor Josh Budd explains why CRN has decided to relaunch its Women in Channel Awards campaign as the Women and Diversity in Channel Awards

CRN's Women in Channel Awards has come a long way since we first launched it in 2018.

We believe the awards night itself has become a staple event in the channel calendar, and the wider Women in Channel campaign has done a fantastic job in raising awareness of diversity in our industry, as well as recognising the individuals who have made a real difference to the IT sector as a whole.

Although there's still much more to do, its amazing to reflect on the progress the channel has made in the last five years alone. Many decision makers at the top of the industry are now putting diversity at the very heart of their organisation's culture and are now seeing it as a critical issue that will ultimately determine their future success.

But gender is just one of many ways in which diversity expresses itself. We all know that diversity goes far beyond just gender, and underrepresentation in the IT channel is a much wider issue than our original awards campaign recognised. This is why CRN has decided to relaunch the Women in Channel Awards as the Women and Diversity in Channel Awards.

The journey towards becoming a truly diverse industry means that the IT channel must embrace diversity as a whole and be an attractive and welcoming place for everyone regardless of their race, gender, cultural background, religious beliefs or sexual orientation.

It is only through tackling diversity in all its forms that the IT channel will be able to unlock its true potential and continue to be the innovative and forward-thinking industry we all know it can be.

Legislation introduced in 2018 forcing all UK firms with 250 staff or more to publish gender pay gap data has helped lay bare the systemic underrepresentation of women across the tech sector.

But, while companies have made great efforts to address the gender imbalance in boardrooms, in senior positions and their organisations as a whole, other forms of diversity have been left somewhat neglected.

As the voice of the UK IT channel, CRN believes we can play an important role in igniting more conversation and debate in our community about how we can address this imbalance.

The Women and Diversity in Channel Awards will take place on 13 October in London. It launches with new company categories for 2022 including the Cultural Inclusion Award and the LGBTQ+ Inclusion Award.

We're also introducing new individual categories including Diversity Champion of the Year and Mental Health Champion of the Year to recognise individuals that have been advocating for these pressing issues and helping to make the IT channel a more inclusive and nurturing place to work.

You can see more information on our Women and Diversity in Channel Awards here, and view all of the categories here

We would love to hear your feedback on the relaunch. Please don't hesitate to email me on [email protected] with any thoughts you have.