BSWN was delighted to work with the Mayor’s team at Bristol City Hall to organise an early morning ‘Hot Coffee, Hot Topic’ session on 7th December 2018 for colleagues, academics and business leaders interested in the topic of Economic Inclusion and BSWN’s contribution to Inclusive Growth in the city.

The session had an informal format and was opened by the Mayor Marvin Rees himself as is the tradition for these sessions, before our director Sado Jirde presented our response to the rise in Economic Growth and lack of Economic Inclusion in the city via presenting our research findings and plans for the BAME-led Enterprise hub to be realised in the city.

The chair of the event, David Barclay, invited the panelists James Durie (Business West), Poku Osei (Babbasa), Toby Howkins (Outset) and Robin McDowell (Bristol City Council) to discuss the findings and opened the discussion to the audience. The discussion highlighted three main challenges and foci going forward:

Need to increase representation externally and internally of our organisations to develop role models for BAME communities
Need to recognize when mainstream organisations should become an enabler for change and not do the initiatives directly
Need to find the resources to make the hub happen and develop a sustainable model for it.

BSWN looks forward to developing the BAME-led Enterprise hub plans in the coming year.