How event planners can develop a diversity and inclusion charter

 Vicky Gardner, director of event agency ZiaBia, reveals why asking the right questions can be the first step to creating diverse and inclusive events... 

Diversity and inclusivity (D&I) have taken centre stage in all walks of life, not least at business events– so we wanted to start discussions around this key area early in the planning stages with both our new and existing clients. 

This is relevant in terms of how clients looked at their content, speakers and their audience – whatever their event delivery format, in whichever sector. Of course, some have been looking at this for many years already – but for others, this was something not on their radar, until now.

How we approached this:

We first started to discuss D&I as a team when we were looking at developing our virtual events services – as we were establishing early on in our process who the speakers were at events we were involved with. When we captured speaker information, we analysed this to see the gender, race and age and actually how diverse the speaker line‐up was.

Then we discussed how to attract attendees to a free or paid for event. We looked at the best ways to reach the most diverse of audiences, so that discussion and opinions captured a broad cross-section of views, whether these events were face to face or virtual – or a hybrid style. We started to ask ourselves questions such as:

• How will the event be marketed to allow for maximum exposure? Is there an early bird offer or staggard pricing structures?
• Who are the speakers, what audience will they attract and is everyone represented?
• Could any free places be considered for charities in the sector or university students?

When setting up registration and collecting both speaker and attendee information we could see if anyone had any disabilities or accessibility requirements that needed support, so we could deliver on this. In the past we had always discussed a venues adherence to the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) for step-free access, hearing loops and accessible toilets etc. We also considered whether British Sign Language (BSL) or translation was required and discussed colours and fonts on slides and signage – but when working virtually this creates new questions and different ways of supporting.

But what if a disability question was not asked on the registration form or if no details were filled in? Or what if a link to join an event was available, but no details are captured to offer support and ask the right questions? What happens then? After our research and discussions, we came across the DICE Charter, which we have looked at in relation to both event management and attendee experience.

The DICE Charter is a set of guidelines that encourage diversity and inclusion at conferences and events. The charter is a weighted scoring system that puts the onus of creating diverse and inclusive events on three key factors: event content (60 per cent), event participation (20 per cent) and event attendee (20 per cent).

A score of 60 to 89 per cent would make an event 'DICE Certified and approved' and an event with a score of 90 to 100 per cent would be a 'DICE certified and recommended event'.

From this charter, we have put together our thoughts on how we could start to bring D&I to our clients' attention at the start of a project.

How we've done this:

We created information slides to be included in all tender submissions and proposals to new and existing clients. When invited to present, we discussed and presented our thoughts on D&I at their event ‐ sharing some initial ideas which prompted conversations. This was both from a content and speaker perspective and in terms of how they could reach their audience to register for the event or conference in whichever way they would be attending – either virtually or in person.

We have started being more aware and asking more questions.  What do we need to change to support all people who are considering attending events that we are organising – speaker or delegate.

So far, our approach has been well received and we are on the way to accrediting our first events with the DICE Charter – which we are very proud of. We thought the best way to introduce our clients to this was from the start of their event creation, while they were looking for speakers as opposed to later in the pre-event process after this had been decided and the audience parameters set.

What we have changed:

For this to work for our clients, we have built this into our project plans, so when we have a kick-off meeting for each project with a client it’s an agenda item.

There are occasions when by the time we have the kick-off call, the speaker lineup is already agreed and maybe this had been the case while we were putting together our proposal. In this instance, if the client is keen to look at D&I we can see if the host or facilitators can fill these roles or add an additional speaker to a panel session.

As D&I is such a key topic these days, we are finding clients receptive to change – and they are looking to the future to see what can be done to make their content more appealing if selling tickets to an audience or how to make sure content is rich for an internal event to get the best results for their teams.

There are so many ways to increase diversity at your event, make it accessible to all and increase the reach of your messaging and attendee profile. What are you waiting for?

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Vicky Gardner has been in the industry since she was 16 when she started working in hotels where she completed a trainee management programme working in all departments. She moved to the event agency world in 2005 and co-founded ZiaBia Events Consultancy in 2012. Her love of meeting new people, being part of a team working, and travel keeps her striving to deliver for each and every client.