A better City for all

As my year as Master progresses, it increasingly strikes me that we belong to something bigger than any one of us. A Livery Company is bigger than the sum of its members, and the City is bigger than the sum of its Livery Companies. But we all belong.

We belong to the historic life of the City, exemplified by the proceedings at dinner this evening, while sharing a responsibility to keep both our Company and the wider Livery relevant to the future. That means challenging perceptions of self-serving, patriarchal elitism and building a Livery to which people want to belong.

We can change or stay the same. We can make the best or the worst of the opportunity before us. The world is changing, London is changing and the City is changing. So must we.

In May, the Right Reverend Dame Sarah Mullally became the first female Bishop of London. Our own Past Master, Sir Kenneth Olisa OBE, is now the first Black Lord-Lieutenant of Greater London, and Alderman and Sheriff Tim Hailes is the first openly gay Sheriff of the City of London. Church, state and City are changing.

We need a Livery that values equality, welcomes participation and remains open to people from different backgrounds. We all have something to learn from others, including those whose experience and perspective differ from our own.

From working group to committee

The Company has established a Diversity and Inclusion Working Group, led by Eileen Brown, to examine barriers to participation. We then formalised it as a Panel with a voice into the Membership Committee, which sets the strategy and goals for recruitment and engagement.

At the Court meeting this afternoon, the Panel became the new Equality Committee. It will report directly to Court and influence the whole of the Company's work, not only membership. Equal social, economic and political rights and opportunities should be self-evident, but institutions still need to turn that principle into everyday practice.

Charity and transformation

Charity is one of the central pillars of the Livery. Earlier this year, the WCIT Charity launched its first Charity IT Award, committing £750,000 to champion the transformative power of technology and help charities increase their impact. Seventy-six applications have produced a shortlist of five projects.

• Digital, interactive one-to-one reading support intended to improve literacy for disadvantaged children in rural areas and reach 30,000 children by 2021.
• An artificial-intelligence chatbot providing round-the-clock support intended to help prevent male suicide.
• A multi-channel 'one safe click' service for people affected by a disappearance and for the families of missing people.
• Collaborative medical-data sharing for patients, scientists and clinicians conducting research into brain cancer.
• A technology-enabled children's wheelchair redesigned to be affordable for the NHS.

A better City for all

The Lord Mayor's Appeal seeks to break down barriers to inclusion, celebrate giving and make a greater difference. Those aims closely match our own, and the Company is making a donation in support of the Appeal.

At the beginning of my year, I challenged members to find something to which they could point and say, 'That is why I am proud to be part of the Worshipful Company of Information Technologists.'

I am proud of what members are doing to support charity, equality and the civic life of the City. We belong to something bigger than any one of us, and with that belonging comes a responsibility to contribute.