Feature individuals and organisations who are committed to D & I Austen-Browne expanded on the founding of the trail , saying ; “ At the very beginning of setting up Diversity Ally we looked at how many similarities there were between D & I and sustainability . Both can be quite difficult to implement at the beginning , both can be challenging for people to the point of becoming an irritant for some . In the research around that we saw sustainability trails at exhibitions , where companies are highlighted for their green credentials , which is something we thought we could replicate for D & I .”
Leading the way International Confex had a variety of sessions on D & I , including ‘ Event First Steps - one year on from the black square ’ and ‘ REACH - Race Ethnicity and Cultural Heritage : launching a new event management scholarship to improve diversity ’ both of which took place on the keynote theatre on day two of the show .
REACH drew the crowds , a fund started to provide financial aid for students from diverse backgrounds wanting to do events courses at university . Mash Media managing director , Julian Agostini , donated £ 3 to the scheme for every attendee at International Confex , supporting the bid to diversify those in our industry from the ground up . I wanted to get a sense of what questions were raised about D & I while Gabrielle was on stage at the event , as well as any last words of wisdom she would give to events industry members wanting to support D & I within our sector . She said : “ One of the main things we got asked was how to get started on the D & I roadmap . Our key message around this is setting easily achievable goals , a lot of people try and do everything in one big go , just focus on one thing , which might be : an accessible website for those who are visually impaired , it might be increasing representation within the business or externally , but just focus on one thing to kick off with . “ The other thing was how do we benchmark ourselves as an industry , there is not a whole lot of data surrounding D & I , we were unsure of how we know if we are achieving our goals . The solution for that is utilising representation reports to begin to benchmark and collect data from the industry . “ The final major point from the panel was , ask for help , a lot of people try to do D & I by themselves with no expertise and wonder why it doesn ’ t work . It is hard to push D & I while having a full-time job , so you must utilise experts out there to help you achieve your goals .” Austen-Browne ’ s final point to me reinforced the message that , though D & I might cause some awkward interactions , they are conversations worth having , she said : “ For me , a big point to reinforce is to get used to having uncomfortable conversations . Some people in the industry feel uncomfortable saying the word black , if you ’ re not comfortable saying black how are you expecting to have a conversation in the workplace around hiring more Black people .” EN
Autumn — 47