Speaker Line Ups & Diversity

Someone Christina is connected with businesswise posted on social media around a speaker line-up. The speaker line-up was ‘stale, male and pale’. Christina couldn’t get this situation out of her head so wanted to relay her thoughts to you all on her podcast.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Christina hopes to ask this person she is talking about onto the podcast at a later date to discuss this topic.

On most panels, line ups and events there is lack of diversity. They are usually white, around a certain age and often male too.

People do want to create great value when organising events so need to choose the right talent, this is paramount but also, we don’t want to just speak to one part of the audience via the affinity score. You are more likely to listen to and engage with someone who is similar to you that you can relate to.

It’s not as simple as just telling people that they need to diversify. They might not have a wider network or may be relying on people they know are reliable. But the problem is usually because the diverse speakers aren’t taking the first step.

We need to find ways to get people to speak up for themselves. To gain confidence and get great at networking. Then event organisers won’t find it so challenging diversifying their panels.

It varies in different industries, some are worse than others for diversity, but offering things like mentorship programmes can help tremendously.

Christina is vowing going forward to help those around her and put them forward for these panels and events. This is high on her list for 2021 as she has these opportunities to give.