We care about diversity at conferences and events because we want them to be better for everyone.
Sign the diversity charter to show that you care too.
All too often we see conference and event lineups full of the same or similar people, we don’t want that anymore. We want diversity.
Diversity refers to a wide range of visible and non-visible characteristics; it’s about valuing variety, welcoming a range of backgrounds, experiences and opinions and embracing the benefits that differences bring. We believe that a diverse set of people on stage and in audiences will improve events and will ultimately change the industries they represent for the better.
We know that it takes more effort to increase diversity at events and we will show our commitment to making that happen by signing this charter.
This charter is for event organisers, speakers, individuals, employers, sponsors and venues. By signing this charter, you are committing to highlighting where there is a lack of diversity at events and doing what you can to make things better.
Event organisers
You can make better events for your participants by working harder to create a more inclusive environment. By signing this charter, you are committing to seeking ways to create better events by increasing the diversity of the people on stage as well as in the audience. You can use these ideas to help you. Once you sign the charter, you’ll get a logo to add your website to show your commitment to diversity.
Event speakers, individuals, employers, sponsors and venues
Influence diversity at conferences by being mindful of who is speaking and what the conference is doing to promote diversity. By signing this charter, you are committing to encouraging event organisers to consider making events diverse, highlighting when they aren’t and helping where you can. (We encourage giving people the benefit of the doubt and working with them rather than calling them out publically)
Speakers
Choose not to speak at events that will not commit to creating diverse events.
Individuals
Choose not to attend and/or fund events that will not commit to creating diverse events.
Employers
Choose to not send employees to as audience members, speakers or panel members to events that will not commit to creating diverse events.
Sponsors
Choose not to fund events that will not commit to creating diverse events. You make sure you have a diverse range of people representing your organisation at events you sponsor.
Venues
Work with event organisers to ensure you are meeting diverse needs. Choose to not host events that will not commit to creating diverse events.
The most recent signatories
Dan McAllister
Brown-Forman
Stuart Taylor
Pollinator Social Innovation
Rachelle Harvey
Infosys Consulting
Encouraging psychological safety, inclusion, and demonstrating from my own transgender journey that anything is possible and helping all I encounter to build self and to realise their value. I am also on the board / panel for diversity and inclusion at Infosys Consulting.
Toby V. Rao
Tora Solutions LLC
Diversity and Inclusion should not be a question of choice. It should be a given. But it is seldom that way. As a community organizer, speaker, trainer, and coach I will do everything in my capacity to withhold the values of Diversity and Inclusion!
David Kinsella
Everitas
Nurturing diversity, nurtures progress. Denying diversity leads to progress atrophy, and society is forever poorer for the denial.
Respect everyone for their goodness and uniqueness, and challenge everyone to be their best selves - for others.
Sabine Harnau
From Scratch Communications
As a speaker, I will approach each event with a mindset of humble enquiry about the speaker community and the topics presented: who's present, who's absent? Knowing that some forms of diversity may be invisible, I will raise the topic and invite others to think about potential barriers for underprivileged speakers.
As Founder and Principal Consultant at Pollinator Social Innovation (PSI), a boutique EDI&B, Innovation, Leadership & Organisational Development and Service design Consultancy, I am 100% committed to the diversity agenda. Personally, I consider myself a Decolonial Activist and therefore diversity champion. This stance informs all of the work I do within and beyond PSI. So, regarding the Diversity Charter, I pledge to utilise and deploy as many of the pro forma recommendations provided by the Charter in PSIs direct work and to recommend to ALL our clients that they too, proactively engage with the Charter, adopt it and champion it through their professional and social networks. Change is possible. Hope is power. Action is where change lands. A luta continua!...