Cameron Roberts, editor, Conference News, uncovers how inclusive event design is being implemented across our industry.
Across the intersections event organisers. No event will be of identity there are truly inclusive for everyone, but different needs for different people, an event attendees experience has never been more intrinsically linked to who they are and what they need. This personalisation, down to the minute details of individual attendees, can be daunting for there are steps that organisers can take to ensure everyone attending can feel welcome and appropriately catered for.
I spoke with: Helen Moon, chief executive and founder, Eventwell®; Lou Kiwanuka, founder, The Ops Nest; Simon Sabin, founder, SQLBits; Danielle Bounds, sales director, ICC Wales; and Megan Strahle, sustainability consultant, The Bulb, to find out more.
Seeing clearly
The first step in inclusive event design is recognising what needs a community has and how to attend to them. This can be trickier than it sounds, across the spectrum of intersectionality, these needs are not only physically apparent, but can include hidden disabilities and neurodivergence.
Helen Moon, chief executive and founder, Eventwell®, said: “With people who need assistance, in terms of chairs, walking devices, that’s very easy to address, because we can see it. There’s also a very, very clear guidance in terms of what to do.
“When it comes to invisible disabilities, just because something is hidden, just because it’s something that we haven’t experienced, doesn’t mean that it doesn’t exist, doesn’t mean that it’s not very, very real, for someone who has to live with those kinds of aspects on a day-to-day basis.”
This broadness in needs is a tough nut for organisers to crack, it’s not a case of installing a ramp and calling it job done, it’s about creating in-depth inclusion strategies that reach across the boundaries of people’s needs.
For SQLBits, an SQL Server and Microsoft Data Platform conference, meeting the needs of its community as standard does as much for those who identify in the ‘typical’ range. Simon Sabin, founder, SQLBits, said: “Our fundamental belief is that if we deliver something that caters for everybody’s neurodiversity, everyone’s foible, then actually it’s beneficial for those people that think they’re typical.
“Invariably they probably have some avoidable trigger that means that they will have a better experience without.”
Road to change
As with all things sustainable, driving change and demonstrating a need to create inclusive spaces will be a key roadblock for those organisers wanting to invest. While the moral reasons are becoming clear for more people, the financial incentives could be the catalyst for real-world action.
Lou Kiwanuka, founder, The Ops Nest, said: “I think there are new commercial drivers for increasing accessibility. Communities, especially those centred around disability, have much louder and stronger voices through social media. You don’t have to go far into social media to see somebody’s experience of inaccessibility in an event space.”
Agreeing with Kiwanuka, Sabin spoke about attracting a new segment of a community, simply by making his event open to all. He said: “You don’t know the people that aren’t coming to your event, people don’t go and ask for squash, but when we provided it, it was gone before day one was finished. So, we really have to be actively trying to find those people that can’t or won’t come to the event in its current form.”
This moving of the needle may also be conducive to more creative events, by appealing to more niche interests and needs, organisers may be more open to innovation. Moon said: “From an inclusion perspective, neurotypicals are likely to attend events to network, to schmooze and to socialise in their own divergence. Some neurodiverse people find networking very difficult, but still have a thirst for knowledge. That intersection is likely to be there for the education, the keynote speakers, to learn.
“What this means for event organisers in terms of that event design, is that it needs to evolve. We’re starting to recognise that and move in the right direction, but there’s still an awful lot to be done.”
One area we’re already seeing this innovation is in the change in terminology, from audience to community. For Danielle Bounds, sales director, ICC Wales, this shift in perspective in critical for future event success, she said: “I think organisers need to move away from thinking about just putting on an event. Instead, they should be reframing it and thinking about creating a community of people who share experiences, it just so happens to be at an event. So, it’s about making that work for communities and that paying attention to the key drivers, rather than creating an event.
“Take a medical association event, for example, you’ve got a person who’s organising an event for a group of doctors, that person isn’t a doctor and doesn’t understand being a doctor.”
This community aspect is also cyclical, by being inclusive to a community and involving all walks of life, organisers can create once-in-in-a-lifetime events according to Megan Strahle, sustainability consultant, The Bulb. She said: “By integrating the community, you’re creating a USP, because you can’t recreate that experience elsewhere. Because this is a one-time thing by creating a special moment that’s unique.
“I think we’re at the point in our professional life where you need to have an inclusion and accessibility budget, I think that’s now non-negotiable. I think everyone needs to start adding in cost for sustainable materials or sustainable signage in event budgets.”
The first step
Taking the first step can be the hardest, but for those organisations wanting to make a change there are some accessible alterations that can be made to working practices in the short term.
Strahle said: “Do your research. There is a tonne of information out there, there’s a lot of really great influencers on LinkedIn, who are openly talking about their experience. Remember that any feedback that a disabled person is giving about your event is not a criticism, it is because we want to improve the experience for future attendees.”
It’s also about personal experience with these challenges according to Kiwanuka, she said: “Another way that I think organisers could really change things is by exposing the hierarchy of our industry, to the experience of people. I learned the most from accompanying somebody to an event and seeing their experience first-hand.”
Kiwanuka ended our conversation on a message of change, how it doesn’t have to be the behemoth on the horizon and striving towards an inclusive future is possible. She said: “I would hope that everyone that reads this article, commits to making one change a month. Learning how to make change is the biggest barrier in our industry, whether it’s sustainability, inclusivity, governance or any of the ESGs.
“What I can see from interviewing people every week for the last three years in our industry, is that the biggest barrier is that people don’t know how to change, they don’t know how to make change.”
