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“ Mash Media will commit £ 3 to the REACH scholarship for every visitor who comes to International Confex .”
working with an awesome team of people from Diversity Ally , Event First Steps , Mash Media and Manchester Metropolitan University to deliver an industry programme that will increase the talent pool in the future and as such show the sector is an inclusive place to work . “ The scholarship is called REACH , which stands for Race Ethnicity And Cultural Heritage , and we will be launching it officially later in the year ( most likely at International Confex ). Stay tuned .” Robert is coordinating things , so if you want to get involved , please drop him a message on robert @ thehub . jobs . Essentially , it costs a student circa £ 27,000 per year to study for their degree plus on average , £ 5,000 per year living costs . The living costs are where the drop out happens and where we are focusing our efforts and we need event businesses to support this . It is tangible positive action , not a token gesture . Currently 16 % of students studying for their event degree at MMU are from a black or brown background and the aim of the scholarship is to increase that to 25 % I would urge as many event businesses as possible to pledge £ 5,000 . But please don ’ t feel substandard if your business is struggling at the moment and you can ’ t commit this year , as are so many . This isn ’ t a once in-a-lifetime opportunity , it will endure . However , Mash Media wants to help too , so here ’ s my pledge …
We will donate £ 3 for every visitor to International Confex I feel so strongly about this that Mash Media will commit £ 3 to the scholarship for every visitor who comes to International Confex , which takes place 1-2 September 2021 . So , register today , and if you join us on either of the two show days , that ’ s helping towards funding another placement . For context , in 2020 we welcomed 7,500 – that would have been £ 22,500 if we ’ d done it then . I am also keen to have a post graduate academy set up . Such a thing takes an enormous amount of work and conversations are already underway . We will circle back to this another time , as setting up the scholarship must come first . We are also working on plans to create a future leader programme to facilitate a targeted amount of midlevel roles to those from non-white backgrounds , which will be combined with developmental mentoring and reverse mentoring . I will be discussing this further at a Diverse Leaders Roundtable at International Confex . And we need to acknowledge the great strides we will be making with an award , too . Mash Media is already undertaking this with an eye on including the Diversity and Inclusion Award in 2022 . We will keep you updated as and when we have further details .
Let ’ s put our money where our mouth is This is a mission that I feel passionate about and believe that it could pave the way for real progression within our industry . Educate and invest in the next generation and make our industry truly inclusive and even more powerful and innovative . So that ’ s the mouth , here ’ s the money . International Confex will put cash into this pot every year to get this started and if we ’ re all in this together , in reality , this is my proposal . As I have already mentioned , for every visitor we get , it will be worth £ 3 to the future of the industry . Last year we got 7,500 visitors but I ’ d like to invest £ 50,000 annually , if you ’ ll get behind this . So , shout and show your support and I ’ ll put my money where your mouth is ( or feet are ). Contact me on jagostini @ mashmedia . net A full announcement about REACH and how you can support it will be published soon .
Register for International Confex today . 1-2 September 2021 , ExCeL London www . international-confex . com
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