Rise and Skyline team up to achieve gender diversity in the media industry

The ICT media industry is booming, as is the demand for talented employees. But for all its technological evolutions, the sector still has difficulties evolving towards a gender-diverse industry. That’s why on this year’s International Women’s Day, we reveal our partnership with Rise, focusing on closing the gender gap in the industry.

Rise is a global non-profit organization that aims to achieve a diverse and gender-balanced workforce across the broadcast media and entertainment technology sector. As the world’s leading provider of end-to-end digital transformation solutions for the industry, Skyline is more than happy to assist them in this mission.

“The tech industry has always been perceived as a men’s world. And that’s largely due to a lack of female role models,” explained Carrie Wootten, Managing Director at RISE. “That’s why Rise focuses on opening opportunities for women through a wide variety of educational programs and inspiring networking sessions. We’ve already made great progress throughout the UK, North America, and the APAC region, and now we’re looking for ways to gain ground in Europe as well. Our partnership with Skyline is a huge and important step in the right direction.”

“We’re very glad to be able to contribute to this noble mission,” said Frederik Vandenberghe, CFO at Skyline. “We believe that diverse teams are crucial to any company. First of all, a more diverse team is better equipped to understand the needs of a diverse consumer base. Secondly, being surrounded by people you can identify with is vital to any employee’s well-being. Unfortunately, the reality for many tech companies, including ours, is that we’re still a long way from gender-balanced workforces. Today, still only 14% of our employees are women.” 

“As an industry-leading company, we have a major responsibility to bring about change,” added Ben Vandenberghe, CEO at Skyline. “We have already been re-evaluating many aspects of our company, from changing our recruitment strategy to creating a more inclusive culture. Now we also want to invest in organizations like Rise to empower women. We hope that our actions inspire other companies to follow suit, because it will take a joint effort to make our industry gender-balanced.” 

Another recent change at Skyline was the launch of a "Change For The Better" working group, which focuses on change for its people, its community, and the planet as a whole. This workgroup also looks at the diversity and inclusivity aspect of everything the company does – from how it builds its solutions to how it builds its workforce.

You can learn more about Rise and its initiatives on their website.