Cameron Roberts, editor, Conference News, uncovers how tokenism undercuts real diversity and inclusion in events.
Diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) in events is an ever-rising priority for event organisers across the globe. With this rise however, some planners have fallen into the trap of promoting tokenism, by only investing in DEI on a surface level as opposed to making a genuine strive for change.
This surface-level commitment to change is likely to have adverse effects for organisers not attempting to move the needle. To find out what tokenism in events looks like, how it impacts attendee experience and how to avoid its pitfalls, I spoke to David Ogiste, founder, Nobody’s Café, and Neil Basing, events manager and emcee, PinkNews.
What’s the problem?
Tokenism is defined as making a symbolic effort to do something, in the context of under-represented groups, this may manifest in recruiting individuals from these groups to appear to be promoting DEI. In events, this can be including someone from one of these groups as an afterthought on a panel or in an attendee list.
Organisers may not see the problem here, after all, making an effort to include these marginalised groups has to be a good thing, right? The issue stems from not making a genuine effort to get the right people from these groups or resorting to the same names every time. By choosing people to appear based solely on immutable characteristics, it devalues the conversation and does not create a positive atmosphere.
David Ogiste, founder, Nobody’s Café, said: “It’s realistically creating an atmosphere where diverse people within that room don’t feel included. So that’s creating an atmosphere where they are invited as a tick box exercise. It’s an organiser saying that they need someone diverse in attendance, or someone with a disability in attendance, etc.”
Neil Basing, events manager and emcee, PinkNews, agreed, he said: “I think tokenism is when you just pluck anyone out of the air because they fit a box that you might be missing. I have done this as a queer events manager as well, I am guilty of tokenism.”
It’s an easy trap for organisers to fall into, especially when many business communities are dominated by certain groups of people. Those organisers that are early on in their inclusion journeys may not consider the impact of tokenism until it is too late according to Basing. He said: “I’m guilty of getting so far down the line in my event planning, then looking at my panel, and thinking ‘I have to fill that with someone who is a woman.’ Particularly when it comes to sectors like business or engineering where it’s typically led by white straight men. I think it’s shoehorning anyone that could possibly be marginally aligned with what you’re trying to achieve. What we need to do is be better at incorporating proper representation or authentic representation in from the start of an event.”
Aside from the moral reasonings for investing in a more inclusive strategy and moving away from tokenism, there are also business drivers according to Ogiste. He said: “People just don’t necessarily want to come to the event where they don’t feel represented in what is being presented to them. I think there was a time where people would just come to the event and feel uncomfortable and just go home and maybe have a little moan about it. For them to arrive and feel uncomfortable in the scenario, they just don’t feel like they need to do that anymore.”
“There are now people that will say the reason they didn’t attend an event that’s been held by x-organiser is because they didn’t have diverse speakers and representative of who they are and what matters to them.”
For Basing “proper representation” also must include “diversity of thought” rather than just a focus on the intersections that a person may belong to. Basing continues: “Making sure that you’re branching out into who your panel are and what they think, will allow organisers to be a bit be more creative about how they organise the content at their events.”
Make the change
Changing people’s attitudes towards tokensim is no easy task, the practice is ingrained in many businesses that the approach has to be amended both internally and externally in order for impactful change to take place.
Ogiste focuses on the internal steps that an organisation can take to tackle tokenism. He said: “Tokenism is the sense of, there’s one person of colour that’s in all the photos when organisers talk about the company, but that’s not reflected in the senior leadership team.”
This surface level commitment to DEI is compounded by many of those from minority groups being “junior people that are brought in, on a certain level.” Ogiste relates this trend to senior people from these groups having left “because then they hit the ceiling within the company.”
Ogiste’s point is that true representation starts from within, if organisers focus on DEI within their hiring practices, this focus will translate to more equitable attendance to events.
Basing sees that progression is down to people being asked to speak on their expert topics, rather than aspects of their identity. He said: “I think that’s kind of where things are going right now is that people can say: ‘You want me as a queer person to speak on your panel? That’s fine. But make sure that’s not all I’m speaking about.’ Which is why speaking to you [Cameron Roberts] right now is important, because I can talk about these issues as someone who wants to be included. But I’m also going to speak about it from a professional point of view, not just because you need someone from a marginalised community to talk to.”
Next steps
Our two experts both identified that the first step is often the hardest to encourage positive change, especially when it comes to the unknowns that are involved with DEI strategy for much of the events industry.
Encouraging eventprofs that effort will be recognised and rewarded, Ogiste said: “Even if you slip up somewhere, it may happen, everyone appreciates the fact that you’ve tried and you are trying to get better. My advice to people is, you do need to take the steps, it may seem a bit scary because everything is when it’s new.
“But if you do it, then you’re going to better the events that you do, you’re going to better the brands that you work with, you’re going to better the people that you bring together.”
For Basing, tackling tokenism starts with an action, any action, he said: “Whatever action you take, just take an action. Just do something. I think that if you are starting a DEI journey, open your mind open your mind to the issues that are going on in society.
“Pick a couple of angles to get you going and move from there. I find that once you start to understand some of the challenges and barriers faced by one minority group, then it’s a lot simpler to transfer that level of understanding to another group.”
The message is clear, eventprofs must start investing in DEI, not from a place of panic focused on optics, but from a place focused on being inclusive to more people within our industry. There’s a lot of people, from a lot of backgrounds, with a lot to say, the sooner we represent this in our speaker, employee and delegate lineups, the better.
