Meta Description: Make conferences more inclusive with diverse speakers and focus on specific groups. Find out the benefits of diverse conferences, workplaces, and more.
Workplaces and companies are often diverse, but what about conferences with keynote speakers? Reports in recent years say otherwise. Adding different trainings attended in a resume is great, but it can also serve a greater purpose if a more diverse audience is reached.
Luckily, many workplaces and conferences around the country aim to create spaces where everyone feels valued. This comes with more success for professionals and companies.
With these efforts, professionals can diversify their speakers and put together inclusive content that reflects the varied perspectives of professionals and business leaders from different backgrounds.
Professional Development Opportunities for Diverse Groups
Conferences should be promoted for all groups. It’s important to remember that conferences are great ways for any professional to learn and improve in their craft. Attending these events helps people network, learn new skills, and more.
For anyone looking to advance their careers and make a positive impact in their industries, here are the various ways conferences can help:
- Learning and skill building: Professionals in any field can brush up on the latest trends, best practices, and emerging tech.
- Having access to new ideas: Getting in touch with a range of individuals and speakers at conferences can expose professionals to fresh ideas.
- Increased visibility and credibility: Participating in conferences as an attendee or speaker can improve a professional’s visibility and credibility within their field.
One good example of conferences that target a specific demographic is the yearly events organized by Lesbians Who Tech. This group organizes conferences every year, ensuring that their demographic is up-to-date on the latest tech and tools in their industry.
Additional Benefits of Diversity and Inclusion
The promotion of inclusiveness at conferences leads to enhancing both event success and the broader professional community.
Diverse teams also have proven to have superior problem-solving abilities. Research has shown these teams are 87% better at making decisions.
This improved decision-making capability can lead to more forward-thinking ideas.
On top of that, inclusive events are more attractive to attendees, speakers, and sponsors, who value diverse opinions, which can help increase participation and attendance along with the overall impact of these events.
Statistics That Demonstrate Diversity in Conferences Is Beneficial
Research has shown that diversity and inclusion initiatives at conferences and in the workplace can provide huge advantages. Here are some key statistics to keep in mind supporting the value of diversity and inclusion:
- Companies with diverse management teams have 19% higher revenue.
- Organizations with above-average gender diversity and employee engagement have 46-58% better financial performance.
- Diverse companies are 70% more likely to expand into new markets compared to organizations that do not actively recruit and support diverse talent.
- Teams that are diverse in geography, gender, and age make better business decisions 87% of the time.
- For every 10% increase in gender diversity among senior executive teams, earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) rises by 3.5%.
- 76% of job seekers and employees say a diverse workforce is an important factor when evaluating companies and job offers.
Challenges and Solutions
Despite the clear positive impacts of a diverse conference or seminar, there are challenges to getting audiences from different backgrounds to attend. For example, overcoming unconscious bias in speaker selection and attendee engagement is still a significant challenge.
Budget limitations can also delay the implementation of initiatives for more inclusion..
To address these challenges, some conferences have adopted blind review processes for speaker proposals, set diversity criteria for panelists, and partnered with organizations representing underrepresented groups to expand their reach and inclusivity.
Different Strategies to Make Events More Inclusive
Making events more diverse is a long process that is seeing numbers improve slowly but surely. Event organizers are implementing various strategies to encourage inclusivity at professional conferences.
These include adopting diverse speaker selection criteria, ensuring gender balance in panels, and prioritizing accessibility for attendees with disabilities.
Some conferences even offer childcare services or support for parents, removing hassles for those with family to take care of.
At the same time, many events are establishing clear codes of conduct to create safe environments, with procedures for reporting harassment or inappropriate behavior.
To increase the range of content, organizers are adding topics related to social responsibility into conference programs, which helps to promote not only meaningful discussions among attendees from various backgrounds but also additional material to the event.
Despite the number of challenges that organizers face, many conferences are making progress in helping to create more accessible spaces for professionals from any walk of life.
As diversity within the workplace continues to grow, prioritizing inclusion at professional events will be crucial for them to remain relevant, impactful, and beneficial for everyone.