Association Voice
Diversity starts with
conversations that
scare us
Chris Skeith, CEO of the Association of Event
Organisers, says we must continue to have more open
conversations about diversity in the workplace
D
“Diversity is
such an all-
encompassing
topic, there is
no quick fix and
each industry will
have different
priorities”
56 — June
id you know that highly diverse
organisations are proven to be more
profitable?
Karen Blackett OBE, who keynoted the
AEO Forums earlier this year, revealed that
organisations with more gender diversity at top
level are 21 per cent more likely to outperform
those with less. Those with more ethnically
diverse workforces are 33 per cent more likely to
outperform companies less ethnically diverse.
As the secretariat to our members, it is our
duty to continually challenge the status quo and
keep things moving and growing in a way that
best serves the industry. So, following that very
memorable keynote by Karen, I was compelled
to ask very serious questions about the diversity
landscape in the events industry.
Diversity is, however, such an all-encompassing
topic so there is no quick fix and each industry
will have different priorities. For want of keeping
to a word count, I will, therefore, focus on gender
and ethnicity.
Firstly, I truly believe that the industry has
come on leaps and bounds in recent years. At the
AEO, we made a conscious decision, a couple of
years ago, to initially focus on gender diversity.
We’ve transformed the AEO Excellence Awards
judging panel, included gender splits in our
salary survey and encouraged more women to
participate in our working groups and take on
leadership positions commensurate with their
experience and expertise.
We’ve also tried to make our event programmes
as diverse as possible, which at times, has proven
challenging when the male to female ratio of
speakers is often heavily skewed towards male. Of
course, we want to put the best speaker line-up
together which means our programmes often
reflect the same ratio.
We have been working closely with the talent
group on a campaign that looks at our talent pool
and asks what more we could be doing to attract
and retain great people as well as nurture and
cultivate diverse work spaces.
Let’s look at the industry at large – are we
benefiting from Karen’s point that ethnically
diverse workforces outperform those that aren’t?
I recently learnt about one programme a leading
publisher had implemented called ‘’Creative
Access for BAME people.’’ It’s a paid internship
that opens doors for Black, Asian and Minority
Ethnic communities that might not have been
open to them before. Most of these interns then
go on to land a permanent job, which has been
hughely effective in shaping the landscape of this
particular company, which results in huge benefits
for the employer as well as the intern.
Inclusive hiring is another great initiative.
Recruiters are naturally drawn to hiring people
like themselves but, if a more diverse mix of
people become involved in the interview process,
we are likely to improve diversity in the workforce.
After all, if our customers’ backgrounds are like
a mosaic, shouldn’t this be reflected in the people
marketing and selling to them so we can more
closely align with their values? So yes, lots of great
programmes already being implemented that I’m
sure many of us could learn from.
It’s a narrative that’s often difficult to confront
but one that we must continue to have more open
conversations about even if they scare us.
Are we going to do or say the wrong thing along
the way? Maybe. But there are risks attached to
every worthy pursuit.