State of the Industry Corporate Report: How brand events are putting DEI in the spotlight

The majority of those surveyed were adopting measures to incorporate DEI into their events, although others were lagging behind. More than three-quarters (78%) of those surveyed were allowing attendees to share their accessibility needs upfront (although arguably this seems so basic, it’s a little surprising that nearly a quarter still aren’t).A similar number (76%) were ensuring a diverse range of speakers at their events, and 73% were accommodating special dietary requirements into their food and beverage offering.As one respondent stated, prioritising DEI means, “Ensuring it’s always a topic on the planning agenda and establishing requirements to ensure our events are inclusive – from venue to F&B to event structure, we need to consider the needs of our delegates.”Most event professionals – although not all –were also prioritising an accessible venue (69%), providing adjustments such as closed captioning for those with special access needs (67%), and offering fullyaccessible activities at the event (62%).For some, that meant: “Making sure optional activities and meals cater for all, but without it being obvious that that’s what you’re doing – it should simply be inclusive by nature.”Meanwhile, more than half (56%) of event professionals were incorporating a wellbeing element into their programmes, and just over half (53%) were now allowing attendees and/or speakers to specify theirpreferred pronouns.Yet, less than a third (31%) were following an agreed DEI strategy or KPIs for the event – suggesting that the industry is lagging further behind on DEI than sustainability when it comes to setting key performance metrics.“We’re very much still in phase 1 of our DEI journey as an industry,” admitted one respondent. “Let’s keep knowledge- sharing and innovating.”Top priorities for event DEIMany event professionals we surveyed were sensitive of the need to champion DEIwithout making any attendees feel ‘different’ – or as one respondent termed it: “Baking DEI into our best practice without labelling it”. Another explained: “We are a unique industry and bring together people from all walks of life, but have consistently isolated or identified individuals as different, due to ‘special requirements’. We need to eliminate the need to identify or single-out, and events need to be completely inclusive.”One way of making events more inclusive is to “work with event suppliers and partners who reflect and share your DEI strategy”. And in practical terms, this could mean bringing in diverse consultants with a wider set of opinions. In other words “considering it from kick-off ”.Fundamentally, events need to be “a safe and open space for all genders, races and non-binary individuals” and include quiet spaces for neurodivergent attendees. How the industry can improve DEIWhile there was the odd dissenting voice about the necessity for improvements in attitudes towards DEI there is broad agreement that the industry can’t just shrug and take a ‘build it and they will come’ attitude. “Looking at the event through a DEI lens at all times” is one holistic attitude. “Stop treating DEI as if it’s a special brownie pointto achieve,” is another. “We shouldn’t have to make this a separate point.”Venue accessibility needs to be “non- negotiable”. One person said: “Make a lot of the adjustments standard practice rather than special requests. Venues need to expand their menus to cover dietary requirementsmuch more extensively.”Cost is a factor so there was a plea for “affordable tools to deliver DEI” or, more bluntly, “put your money where your mouth is. Make big changes to make sure that DEI is at the heart of what you do – and be prepared to sacrifice to accommodate.” Use sign language interpreters and captioning, for example.One suggestion to execute DEI needs is to “showcase/promote agencies and speaker bureaus that work with diverse talent” so that ultimately events are “championing diverse voices across the industry”.

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