UK Music Industry launches Meritocracy networking dinner series

13 October 2016 - Press release

UK Music Industry launches Meritocracy networking dinner series for U30 Music Execs with Keith Harris OBE

On 5th October Young Music Boss in partnership with UK Music, supported by the MMF, hosted an inaugural event of the Meritocracy dinner series, bringing together a group of fifteen music industry power-players and influencers - all under thirty - for an evening of networking and discussion.

A key objective of Meritocracy is to engage rising young music professionals in conversations which they are often excluded from, enabling them to validate their views and share them with senior members of the business. It aims to help take them out of the ‘silos' that the industry often creates, providing a discussion forum with room to disseminate innovative ideas.

Each of these dinners will focus on a particular theme and is lead by an industry champion. This first dinner focused on the issue of Diversity and featured a presentation by well known industry expert Keith Harris who has worked with the likes of Diana Ross, Marvin Gaye and Stevie Wonder. Keith captivated the dinner with stories highlighting the challenges and triumphs he has faced over his career and talked about the not-so-distant past when racism was rampant and ‘diversity' was not yet a topic. “We won’t see a change overnight, the best you can do is be the absolute best at what you do” was a comment by Harris that resonated particularly with the group.

Attendees were selected based on merit and achievement and the guest list included some of the brightest young A&Rs, Digital Entrepreneurs, PRs, Managers, Agents and Journalists in the business. Guests included Tim Dellow founder of Transgressive Records, Caroline SM A&R Manager at XL recordings, Kaiya Milan founder of Women in Music and manager to Kojey Radical as well as a dozen other guests.

The ‘Meritocracy’ series was conceived by Jusnah Gadi, 25, a music entrepreneur and lawyer, who also hosted the evening. She comments “Young people are centrally important to our industry, they shape the future, but are often excluded from contributing their opinions. This platform aims to build powerful, broad networks which will in turn increase opportunities within - and access to - the industry”.

The invite only event took place at the new members-only Century Club. Meritocracy will run quarterly as it establishes itself as a platform to energise, cultivate and support this generation of Young Music Bosses.

To find out more follow @youngmusicboss on twitter and Instagram or visit: http://www.ukmusic.org/equality-diversity/meritocracy-dinner-series/