At CCT Venues, we’re proud to be an inclusive
company – so we were thrilled to be recognised for our commitment to
equality in the recent London Venues Awards.
Our Barbican venue was honoured with the Silver Award in the
Best Venue for Employing Women and Gender Equality category at the event
on 5 October.
The London Venues Awards judging panel praised the CCT Venues as a “great demonstration of a female-led business”. They added, that it was clear teams “clearly working hard from the
beginning to create a balanced company that offers many opportunities to
women.”
“The flexible working really works, and having had several of the
senior management team working part time on returning to work after
maternity leave hasn't done the business any harm - other companies
could learn a lot from this strategy and company,” they concluded.
“Developing and promoting women within our business is a natural
process, and we have always had a policy to identify and develop talent
regardless of gender, race, sexual orientation, age or any other
factors,” says CCT Venues CEO and founder Caroline Bull.
“Although this award was presented to our Barbican venue, it reflects
the overarching culture of CCT Venues as a company which embraces the
true meaning of equality of opportunity,” Caroline adds.
Since its launch 12 years ago, CCT Venues-Barbican has been managed at a senior level by women and has grown every year,
producing strong commercial results in a competitive market.
Rakesha Daswell was General Manager at our Barbican, Smithfield and Farringdon venues between 2011 and 2018.
“The equality card was never played and the proverbial ‘glass ceiling’ never existed,” she says.
“I shared a level platform with both male and female counterparts and
we celebrated our success as well as our failures. I was always
supported as a colleague and empowered as a manager to make strategic
decisions for the company,” Rakesha adds.
CCT Venues, which has five events spaces across London, supports
flexible working and family-friendly policies, recognising that many
employees need to balance important commitments outside of their working
lives.
There are currently more women than men in senior managerial roles
business-wide, and we ensure names and genders are removed from job
applications in order to avoid any unconscious bias. All interviewers
are trained in equal opportunities best practice too.