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Diversity and Inclusion

Diversity and Inclusion

Why do we need a diversity and inclusion strategy?

Our goal is to be truly inclusive by advocating and seeking active participation by all individuals regardless of their gender, ethnicity, physical or mental disability, sexual orientation, gender expression, age, heritage, education or religion. 

But, our speaker profiles are not yet truly representative of all the different groups of individuals that make up our society. As a result, we are continuing to give diversity and inclusion the prominence required to provide our audiences with wider-ranging perspectives and further improved content quality.

We encourage our partners to discuss and help resolve these challenges within our content, with past sessions confronting approaches to gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation and age.

We want to represent any and all genders and ethnicities at the Festival of Marketing. Greater diversity in our line-up will offer different perspectives, voices and present inspiring role models. It also makes for a better experience.

We might not always get everything right but the only way we can move towards a more diverse Festival is if we recognise our mistakes and correct them as we go. We hope you’ll support us in ensuring that we are placing diversity and inclusion at the heart everything we do.

Our Objectives

  • We will work towards fair representation of all groups within Festival programmes, benchmarking ourselves against the diverse make-up of the UK population.
  • We will commit to working with our partners to help them encourage wider groups of individuals to speak and participate at the Festival.
  • We will make changes to our communications and physical environments to aim to make them accessible to as many groups of individuals as possible.
  • We will remain transparent about our progress and encourage our audience, speakers and partners to further challenge us.
  • We will improve coverage of diversity challenges in the industries we represent within Festival content, using our own platform to advocate change.

Responses to Objections

It’s wrong to favour under-represented groups of individuals over others

It’s not about favouring under-represented groups of individuals over others. It’s about fair representation for all groups. Our plan is simply to broaden the pool of speakers we are considering to offset the natural advantages of already well-represented groups of individuals.
 

It could dilute the quality of event content

We’re not diluting our content quality. We believe fresh perspectives will raise our standards. All our speakers are carefully selected based on their achievements and level of experience - this will not change.
 

Under-represented groups of individuals will feel they are being offered opportunities because of their difference, rather than their own merit

Our plan is not to go out searching for speakers within under-represented groups just to tick boxes. We want the Festival to be an event that welcomes all and leads its industry by actively encouraging wider groups of individuals to put themselves forward as speakers. By doing so, we hope to see our speaker profiles organically becoming more reflective of the diverse make-up of the UK population in the near future.
 

Language and terminology

The recommended language and terminology used to describe different groups of individuals is always evolving and in some places, there is a lack of clear consensus. We want to ensure the language and terminology we’re using best serves those which it describes and therefore we encourage you to contact us if you feel we aren’t getting it right.

Festival of Marketing

The Year Ahead | 18-21 October 2021

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