AFRICAN-THEMED EVENT CELEBRATES IMPORTANCE OF GOOD FOOD, DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION IN BUSINESS TODAY

AFRICAN-THEMED EVENT CELEBRATES IMPORTANCE OF GOOD FOOD, DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION IN BUSINESS TODAY

Top African Chef and Olympic Gold Medallist team up to deliver an ‘immersive cultural experience’

hosted by EP and Barings

29 November 2019London – Leading communicator in progressive thinking, EP Business in Hospitality, has hosted a special African-themed dinner in London, alongside global investment management firm, Barings, to celebrate the importance of good food via an immersive, cultural experience. The purpose of the recent event was to highlight diversity and inclusion at its heart by bringing guests and employees from across the industry together in an informal setting, to foster a greater understanding on the important role food plays today in uniting people and building trust.

Headline speakers included African chef and leading food writer, Fozia Ismail and Olympic gold medallist, Crista Cullen MBE, who joined forces to deliver an engaging and thought-provoking evening for every guest in attendance.  Part of EP’s Fuelling Productivity campaign, events like these aim to celebrate the role of food as well as drive forward a focus on how food service can play an active role in improving wellbeing in the corporate workplace. 

Chris Sheppardson, CEO at EP Business in Hospitality explained: “Good food has the power to create change across many areas of business from diversity and inclusion to wellbeing, trust and leadership.  But it also brings people together socially and helps to boost understanding and more resilient thinking around the challenges businesses now face.  Our partner Barings is one such business that has really placed food at the centre of its strategy and is working on becoming a centre of excellence in terms of how it cares for its people and through its support of local initiatives like this event.”

The need to highlight the role that food plays in businesses today has been sparked by the genuine challenges companies face with loss of productivity and decline in trust and culture.  Mental illness and corporate wellbeing have also become a struggle for many.

Fozia Ismail, chef and food writer added: “Events like this are really important because they highlight the role and culinary contribution that immigrants and migration have made to the UK.  They also emphasise the relationship between food, business and society.”

Ghadir Cooper, Head of Diversity at Barings concluded: “This has been a really interesting and inspiring event on a number of levels both for our guests and our employees. Diversity implies diverse views and wider thinking, something of which we are very passionate about as a company, in fact it is central to our strategy for excellence.”

For more information about the event please watch this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hKO4BjHbfUg