The vital role of ‘ Allyship ’
It is evident that the Black Lives Matter movement has driven people in positions of power to step up and make their workplaces fairer and more inclusive. Leaders and people across organisations are now more aware of these issues and keener to play an active role to help their marginalised colleagues advance rather than expect any single function (such as human resources or a DEI committee) to make all the difference. To be co-creators of transformative DEI change in the industry, everyone must educate themselves about racism, be more cognisant of privilege, take responsibility for their own behaviours, and receive feedback from people in underrepresented groups. In other words, each one of us must ‘be an ally.’ A crucial component in being an ally is to call out or confront unconscious bias and systematic oppression based on race, religion, gender, religion, sexual orientation, or ability. Effective allyship could involve recognising one’s own privilege and using it to influence inclusion and equity. To enable a culture of allyship in the events industry, all stakeholders must advocate for each other and stand together against bias, discrimination and racism.
Being an ally means:
Creating space for constructive dialogue on economic injustice and oppression
Ensuring that voices of the lesser represented communities are heard
Leading with empathy to create an environment to thrive together Becoming mentors and sponsors of women and people from diverse ethnicities
Insisting on hiring practices and talent pools that are diverse
Watch out and stand up for bias at work
And so much more …
To enable meaningful allyship, organisations must support leaders and teams with tools and resources to shift efforts from performative gestures to real action that better serves members of their workforce and the extended communities. Emerging from the study, some key best practices to improve DEI practices in the events industry, including proposed actions to support allyship, have been shared separately with the EIC Task Force and the EIC board for their consideration and discussion of next steps. In the following sections, the report explores the results of the study in more detail - specifically how key respondent demographic groups rate their experience on the 4 dimensions of the EIC-DEI framework.
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2022 EIC Equity Benchmarking Study
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