Pro-social organisation, New Intent, has partnered with ICCA UK&I and ABPCO (Association of British Professional Conference Organisers) to advance diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) in the business events industry.
New Intent will work with ICCA UK&I to deliver bespoke workshops to members that will encourage the sharing of DEI challenges, failures, and successes with the aim of empowering members to enact DEI strategies in their personal life, their business and their clients.
DEI survey
The three organisations have also collaborated to create a DEI survey to better understand where destinations, suppliers, PCOs and in-house event organisers are on their DEI journey.
The partnership will provide discussions on the UN Sustainability Goals; how the industry can and should incorporate these into their business goals to ensure the business events industry works with worldwide efforts to put people and planet first.
The survey results will inform further collaboration to act on DEI progress across the business events industry in the UK and Ireland.
Rory Archibald (pictured), founder and CEO of New Intent said: “This is a crucial time for our industry. As the world wakes up to the threat that climate change will have on our future, business events must be part of the solution and not the problem.
“Without robust DEI policies and strategies, climate action will be impossible. We need DEI to fight the climate crisis and we need climate action to fight for DEI. Climate action and DEI are not a competition.
“The work the collaboration will do, with the support of New Intent, will be a statement to the leaders of our industry; we will not wait. We demand change now to safeguard our planet, our future, and our industry.”
The collaboration will commence with the survey that is being issued to the UK industry via ABPCO and ICCA UK&I with workshops launching at the ICCA World Congress in Poland in November 2022.
