Diversity Alliance Talks

On this week's episode, we welcome Benedicta Asante and Nyomi Rose. Both ambitious, intelligent and courageous young events professionals, speaking up and taking action around what they want to see and expect from the future of our industry.

They both shared some useful nuggets around what they think the current issues are with regards to diversity and inclusion, attracting and retaining young talent, and what we need to do to encourage future generations into the events sector.

"80% lack confidence to job they are currently in" - Max Fellows

"You can't be what you can't see" - Melissa Noakes

ELEVATE has been running for 4 years as a free mentorship programme for the events industry, that has been designed with a specific goal in mind – to support and inspire ambitious people within the events industry.  It’s a 6 month programme connecting Mentors and Mentees to make this industry even better.  So far they have helped over 650 people.

On this episode, co-founders Mel and Max tell us how and why they created Elevate, the community benefits of being part of their programme and discuss their personal journey towards becoming actively anti-racist and using their platform to become D&I advocates in the events industry.

https://www.elevateme.co/

Applications to join the programme open in Dec 2020

With the event sector currently in limbo and furlough scheme soon coming to an end,

We are seeing events professionals being made redundant and businesses needing to restructure.

With an eye on diversity and inclusion, how do businesses handle this process in an ethical and inclusive way? Particularly when we know in times of recession and austerity, ethnic minorities and women tend to suffer the most.

Today's guest is Robert Kenward, co-founder of You Search and Select. An independent recruitment consultancy working with agencies within the Live Event, Experiential and Integrated Communications sector.

In this episode we talk about tackling the redundancy process without discrimination, restructuring without biases and how to protect our current talent pool whilst remaining attractive as individual organisations and as a sector to the talent of the future.

It's been 3 months since the death of George Floyd, the summer holiday's are almost over and it will soon be time to get back to work properly.

With that in mind, now may be a good time to reflect and remind ourselves what got us so fired up to fight for racial equality and change in the first place?

In this episode Gabby, Priya and Ashanti discuss the positive and negative role social media can play when it comes to delivering important messages, particularly around social and humanitarian issues. And acknowledging the difference between what we see and share on social media versus the true impact of consistent action in our work environments and the wider community.

Whether you posted a black square or a statement after blackout Tuesday doesn't matter, it's what we are doing behind the scenes in the here and now that counts.

Are we continuing with action to remedy racial inequality?

Or was it just lip service?

How do we move on from the hashtag?

In this weeks episode, we share things to consider when setting up diversity working groups or committees.

Perhaps you’ve hesitated to post messages or make statements on social media for fear of backlash or criticism?

Or maybe you know that there’s much work to be done internally, and have decided to get your ducks in a row before speaking publicly about the matter.

Right now companies are under pressure to show their employees and the wider industry that diversity and inclusion are high on their agenda to be addressed. So, some have announced the creation of internal working groups, networks and councils aimed at exploring how diversity and inclusion can be improved.

Whilst this choice admirable understandable, its important companies are aware of the pitfalls of setting up these internal groups.

"2020 is not all about COVID it's about listening to other peoples voices instead and taking the power to change, in your own hands."

In this episode, we speak candidly with Ryan Curtis-Jhonson, Head of PR & Marketing at DRPG, about the importance of brand values and purpose being in alignment with your diversity message.

We look at why too much focus on the external comms without addressing things internally could potentially expose some areas of businesses and discuss why this not the time to tiptoe around diversity issues or use Covid-19 as a barrier to starting the work that desperately needs to be done.

"What gets measured, gets improved."

Confused about equal pay and pay gaps?

Are women and particularly women of colour really that bad at negotiating a fair salary or do biases come into play?

And finally, how do organisations tackle this issue before it becomes a crisis point?

In this episode, we discuss with Michelle Gyimah, from Equality Pays, how pay gaps are actually measured and why, unsurprisingly, white males are at the top end of these pay scales across the majority of sectors.

Michelle shares why hiring specialists to look at your pay structure and to help map out a framework is key, particularly in such an entrepreneurial sector as the events industry.

We discuss the importance of greater transparency in all sectors and why we should be communicating salaries to all staff and potential new hires moving forward if we are to attract and retain the best talent.

On today’s podcast, we discuss intersectionality, in its various forms, and feminism. Taking a closer look at themes and experiences around being a female AND black.

We ask;

“Black women are angry”

“Black men are criminals”

SPOILER: Stereotypes and myths about race are not just the domain of overt racists.

In this episode, we explore the common misconceptions about black, brown and other minority groups.

Have you ever thought or expressed openly that East Asian students are inherently better at maths, black people have natural rhythm, or Jews are good with money?

We look at how our unconscious biases affect the way we think, feel and behave around those that are different to us. And how it affects those being judged on those assumptions on a day to day basis, both in their personal and professional lives.

In this episode we discuss microaggressions, what they are, and our experiences with them.